Costain appears unaffected by delays to Crossrail, says Liberum

Costain told investors earlier in the day that full-year results should be in line with the board’s expectations as it continued to perform well in the second half.

The London-listed company ended the year with an order book at a record level of £4.2bn, helped by Regional Investment Programme, and net cash of more than £110m.

Liberum said Costain's "strong pipeline" in road, rail and utilities should drive further order book growth and highlighted the fact that the group had been capable of scoring some promising contract wins in the connected autonomous vehicles market.

The broker also stated that it expects to see no impact on Costain from delays to the Crossrail project.

"There are industry concerns about the delays at Crossrail, especially about Bond Street station, where Costain has a joint venture with Skanska."

"The problems seem to be more with the systems and the delays to the procurement of rolling stock and Costain's contract is performing satisfactorily."

Liberum noted that while HS2 has had a slow start as a project, Costain is involved in the enabling works in the South, where there was good momentum.

"There is speculation that the Northern section might be stopped, but it is likely that other solutions would take its place."

In addition to reiterating its 'buy' rating, Liberum stood by its 545p target price on the firm.