Firm鈥檚 profit hit by restructuring costs and fall in transport work
Costain has said it will complete a move to its new head office in the City of London over the summer.
The firm is taking one floor at 70 St Mary Axe, better known as the Can of Ham, after deciding to relocate its headquarters away from Maidenhead in Berkshire.
Chief executive Alex Vaughan said around 140 people will move to the new office close to Liverpool Street station by August, adding the decision had been made because 鈥渋t is a better place to connect all of our teams鈥�.
The firm will keep a base in Maidenhead for support functions such as IT and finance.
He was speaking as Costain said it spent a further 拢8m on 鈥榯ransformation鈥� and restructuring costs last year, on top of the 拢5.7m it racked up in 2022, with the firm adding that it expected to shell out a further 拢5m on similar costs this year.
The 拢8m bill and a 拢5.3m digital services impairment cost helped send the firm鈥檚 pre-tax profit down 6% to 拢31m on turnover also off by 6% to 拢1.3bn. Operating profit was down a third to 拢27m.
Vaughan blamed a slowing down in investment in new roads for the revenue fall with income and operating profit both down at the division which is mainly made up of road and rail work.
But he said the long-term prospects for infrastructure schemes such as roads and energy projects were sound. 鈥淭he mood music is confident, we鈥檙e not expecting any big changes [because of the election],鈥� he added. 鈥淭here is cross-party consensus on what infrastructure is needed and when it鈥檚 needed.鈥�
Costain said its net cash balance was up a third to 拢164.4m and Vaughan added: 鈥淭he strength of a balance sheet is important and important to customers and suppliers. It鈥檚 a good measure of a business鈥檚 resilience.鈥�
The firm said the underlying strength of the business meant it would be paying its first final dividend since 2019 with a planned payment of 0.8p per share. Costain resumed dividend payments last year with an interim dividend of 0.4p making a full year dividend of 1.2p.
Its order book at the year-end was 拢2.1bn, 拢700m down on 2022鈥檚 number, but its preferred bidder book was up 拢200m to 拢1.8bn.
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