Costain is a totally different company from the accident-prone builder some may remember from a few years ago, but the market may be having difficulty appreciating this. The group is best seen as a pure play on spending on the UK’s infrastructure and in areas such as energy, transport and water where such spending, including maintaining the capital’s bridges, tunnels and roads, is pretty much pledged to go ahead.
Costain believes its big infrastructure customers are having to spend £20 billion a year in all, while its revenues are running at about £1.5 billion a year, which gives an indication of the potential for growth.
In all, 90 per cent of the work won was repeat contracts, from customers happy to hire Costain again. As