Its North American business was the star performer of 2012 where operating profit reached £32m.

Justin Atkinson, Keller chief executive said: “These results reflect an improved performance in three of our four divisions, driven by a combination of the self-help measures taken across the group and a strong performance by our business in North America, where market conditions continue to improve.

“Whilst our EMEA division faced very challenging markets across most of Europe, resulting in a first-half loss, its performance improved as the year progressed and it made a profit for the year as a whole.”

At London’s Victoria Station the firm is installing 2,400 jet grout columns to allow 400m of new tunnels to be excavated to connect the new and existing ticket halls.

By the end of the year, around 1,000 grout columns had been installed and Keller said it is on target to meet its spring 2014 completion.

The interlocking jet grout columns are being used to form a 2m ring around the line of the tunnel excavation to both stabilise the ground and act as a barrier to water.

The firm’s other major contracts in London for Crossrail will provide a steady flow of work through to spring 2014.

This include £30m of compensation grouting works around Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street underground stations and structural monitoring, geotechnical instrumentation and surveying works, employing the Getec monitoring system which was originally developed by Keller in Germany.