Costain sees full year in line with expectations after good H2

Costain said on Thursday that full-year results should be in line with the board’s expectations as it continued to perform well in the second half.

In a trading update ahead of its results for the year to the end of December 2018 in March, Costain said it made further progress on its strategy of transforming the group into the UK's leading smart infrastructure solutions company.

"Costain is differentiating itself through its long-term strategic relationships and integrated technology-enabled services necessitated by the increasingly complex and fast-changing nature of its clients' requirements," it said.

"The group continues to be involved in a number of major regulatory-driven procurement processes."

The company ended the year with an order book at a record level of £4.2bn versus £3.9bn at the end of December 2017, while its preferred bidder position stands at around £600m compared to £400m the year before.

Costain finished the year off with net cash of more than £110m, in line with expectations and compared to £177.7m in 2017. It said the decline from the previous year was due to the exceptionally high level due to the timing of receipts in that period.

Chief executive Andrew Wyllie said: "This has been another year of progress for Costain. The benefits of our integrated offering, long-term strategic relationships with our clients and strong balance sheet position us well for the future and the significant opportunity we see across our rapidly-changing end markets."

At 0805 GMT, the shares were up 3.7% to 336.50p.