Costain has announced a “strong” performance for the first half of the year and remains on track to deliver the full year in line with expectations, the firm said today.

Releasing interim results for the six months to June 30, the infrastructure company reported £758.7 million of revenue, which was actually down against the 2017 comparative of £847.8m. Interim pretax profit came in at £19.5m versus £15.7m for the first half of last year.

Costain highlighted what it described as a “higher quality” order book, standing at £3.7 billion, comprising some 90% of repeat business whilst some £1.4bn of future revenue is already secured for the full year.

Andrew Wyllie CBE, chief executive, said: “We delivered another good performance in the first half of the year. The progression in group margin generated growth in underlying operating profit enabling an 8% increase in the interim dividend.

“This performance is due to our differentiation as we evolve into the UK’s leading smart infrastructure solutions company. The shape and nature of our activities continues to develop, reflecting our clients’ changing needs and their demand for integrated solutions to improve the performance and capacity of their assets.

“Our higher quality order book provides good visibility for the group’s future performance and we are on course to deliver full year results in line with the Board’s expectations.”