Kentz, founded in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, delivered an upbeat outlook for the industry in its first half results today.

The company reported pretax profit up 3pc at $52.7m and raised its dividend by 20pc to 6.6 cents.

“Across the global engineering and construction space, many companies are indicating a more cautious outlook for the future than previously observed.

“However, the markets in which Kentz operates continue to be busy and the first half of 2013 has seen one of the most active periods of bidding ever experienced by Kentz,” it said.

The firm is the target of bid interest from rivals.

On August 19, the company said it had rejected takeover approaches from larger London-listed rival AMEC and Germany’s M+W Group, saying both undervalued the company. Source: Reuters