UK's Kier looks to ride out Brexit uncertainty with strong order book

* Sees double-digit profit growth on avg each year to 2020

* Says strong demand in its markets even post-Brexit vote

* Order book at 8.7 bln stg at end-June (Adds CEO, analyst comments, updates share price)

By Esha Vaish

Sept 22 (Reuters) - British construction and services firm Kier Group (LSE: KIE.L - news) stood by its profit guidance as long-running public contracts and low exposure to London's housing market helped it withstand the jolt of Britain's vote to leave the European Union.

Kier, whose activities range from building power stations to outsourcing work for local councils, said it was confident of achieving its goal of double-digit profit growth on average each year to 2020.

About 80 percent of the company's construction work was in British regions that had not seen much impact from the Brexit vote, unlike London, Kier Chief Executive Haydn Mursell told Reuters, adding that social housing work remained strong as Britain looks to tackle an acute shortage.

In services, the company continued to get work filling potholes or maintaining public housing, where budgets were generally ring-fenced, Mursell said.

"We're building schools, hospital extensions, new offices and they're relatively modest value projects but there are a lot of them and that just reflects that the UK economy is beginning to turn to the positive," he said.

Britain's construction industry largely recovered in August from a downturn that started just before the June 23 vote to leave the EU, PMI data showed.

Boosted by strong demand and higher margins, Kier reported on Thursday an 11 percent rise in earnings per share to 106.7 pence for the year ended June 30. Its order book stood at 8.7 billion pounds.

Analysts said results were in line with expectations, but cited the confirmation of the profit guidance as a positive.

Kier is also expected to benefit from the $24 billion Hinkley nuclear power project, given the green light by Britain this month after a long period of uncertainty.

Kier, in a joint venture with Bam Nuttall, has been doing site preparation work at Hinkley Point since 2012.

The remaining work could be worth 50 million-100 million pounds and the company would increase the number of people it employs there to 500 from about 350 now, Mursell said, adding that Kier was well placed to win additional work at the site.

Mursell expressed hope that finance minister Philip Hammond would give the go-ahead to new infrastructure projects in his budget update on Nov. 23.

"The autumn statement is a chance for the UK government to really grasp the nettle and take the opportunity of low debt to fund these sorts of projects and that would obviously kickstart the UK economy," he added.

Kier was well placed to benefit from infrastructure spending on social housing, highways and Hinkley, Liberum analysts wrote, raising their target price to 1,420 pence from 1,235 pence.

Kier shares were up 2.9 percent at 1,316 pence at 1050 GMT. ($1 = 0.7648 pounds) (Reporting by Esha Vaish in Bengaluru; Editing by David Goodman and Adrian Croft)