Firstly, a big thank you for taking the time out to come and join us for Costain's 2025 Half Year Results Presentation. We've included a number of images in our slide deck this year. This one is the [Burham] Reservoir contract that we're now doing for Southern Water. This contract is a fairly new contract, so that's a recent picture. It's been in the news recently, absolutely critical to safeguarding the future supply of water to the southeast of England. This is part of a 12-year program of work that we're going to be doing with Southern Water through AMP8 and into AMP9. I'm Alex Vaughan, Chief Exec of Costain, and I'm going to take you through the operational review shortly.
Helen Willis, our group's CFO , is going to take you through the financial performance and results of the business before I come back and give you a bit of an update on the strategy and the outlook that we've got for the business ahead. We'll take a number of your questions. This slide shows the work that we're doing up at Sellafield. We've been working with Sellafield for a number of decades now. We're helping them with their decommissioning program. This is all a critical part of enabling the U.K.'s new nuclear future by being able to decommission and deal with the waste from the past. You'll hear, as I go through the presentation, the growing position that Costain has built in that new energy market.
I'm incredibly proud of the hard work and effort and drive and dedication that the Costain team has put into executing the ambitious strategy that we've set out. This has resulted in an increase in operating profits and increasing margins in line with the targets that we've set out and further growth in the forward work position of the business. All of that underpins our confidence for meeting expectations for this year and the step-changing growth for the business in terms of revenues, operating profits, and margins in 2027. It's been another positive performance in the first half. Revenue is at GBP 525 million, and we've had continued growth in natural resources. This has been offset in transportation due to the expected ending of a number of road contracts that we knew was coming to an end. That's ahead of the new contract starting. We'll see new contracts starting next year.
We've got the new M60 contract and a number of highway schemes for Transport for London. We have also experienced the rephasing of the schedule on HS2. This is a short-term move in rephasing it, and we'll be completing that work shortly in the future. I call it ebbs and flows of a business, but in the whole, a great performance. The quality of the contract portfolio that we've been building and that we've now got, and the strong execution capability of the business has enabled us to deliver a 3% increase in adjusted operating profit and to deliver margins of 3.2% in the first half of the year. We remain on track to deliver 4.5% margins at a run rate in the second half of this year.
Our net cash position remains strong, and we remain on track to deliver GBP 170 million worth of net cash at the end of the year in line with the previous expectations. With our very clear focus on growing markets, we continue to win a lot of new work and to add new customers to our portfolio as we continue to provide that essential infrastructure that the U.K. needs. We've expanded our forward work position to GBP 5.6 billion, up from GBP 5.4 billion at the year-end, more than 4x our revenues of last year, pretty industry-leading by any measure. Bidding activities in our business remain incredibly high, and we're very confident that we're making further announcements in the second half of the year of additional work that we'll have won. What's really positive is infrastructure investment is significantly increasing, and its prominence in the political world of the U.K. is growing.
We see real momentum in that work progressing. We've been very encouraged by the government's commitments in its 10-year infrastructure strategy and setting out its pipeline and the recent spending review. That bodes really well, and you'll see that every one of our markets, transport for government spend, defense, nuclear energy, and its contribution to energy, all of those markets, the investment is increasing, which is great. That, together with regulated increasing investment in water, energy, and aviation, underpins the clarity and confidence that we have in the growth of the business moving forwards. Through the growth in operating profits and margins, continued strengthening of the balance sheet, and the progression of our dividend alongside the share buyback program, we're creating substantial value for our shareholders and investors.
Given the very positive market outlook and the business resilience that we've clearly built, we're increasingly confident of delivering strong performance through 2025 and 2026, and for that step change in operating profit and revenues in 2027 and beyond. These are really exciting times for us as a business. If I move on to the operational performance, let me start with transportation. The photos on here show the work we're doing at Heathrow in putting in place a new baggage handling system for Terminal 2, a critical starter for 10 for Heathrow's expansion and redevelopment plans. The A30 highway scheme is transforming lives in Cornwall, especially in the summer when it seems to be the most popular place to go. The West Ruislip section of our HS2 program very soon will transform transportation connectivity in the U.K.
In line with the business priorities, the transportation division is delivering operational contracts extremely well and continues to broaden its customer mix, both of those being a critical business driver for us, predictable best-in-class delivery and growth of our customer resilience. Looking forwards, confidence in the growth is underpinned, as I said, by the government's 10-year infrastructure strategy, by its pipeline, and by the spending review. We can see those increasing investments starting to come through. Notably, clarity in the road schemes that are going to go ahead, and also the local and devolved transport spend that is significantly increasing, together with those bigger business plans for our aviation customers, Manchester Airports Group, Gatwick Airport, and Heathrow. In road, we continued to deliver the programs of work that we've got as a strategic partner for National Highways, so the A30 contract in Cornwall, the A1 up near Newcastle.
We've also completed the M6 Smart Motorway program and 41 emergency areas on the M1. We've got a growing portfolio of work for Transport for London, whether that be the Gallows Corner project, the Brent Cross project, or the A40 Westway, that is growing. Looking forwards, our M60 contract has now received confirmation of funding from the spending review and will be starting next year. We've also secured a place with National Highways on their SPaTS 3 framework, having successfully delivered a lot of work for them on their SPaTS 2 framework. That's where we provide technical and engineering consultancy services to help them in their strategic planning on the road network. We've got really clear visibility of the future opportunities in that sector moving forwards.
In rail, on HS2, during the period, the last three TBMs have completed their drives, and we've now completed the connection from West Ruislip all the way through to Old Oak Common. All four tunnels have now been completed, and we were delighted that we completed those on budget and on time. In integrated transport, we've seen increasing growth as investment increases in the airports, and we see this as a real growth market for us moving forwards. Overall, a really strong performance, and I'm very grateful for the hard work of the transportation team. Natural resources is clearly benefiting from strong delivery performance again and significant investment in water, energy, defense, and nuclear energy. Revenue, profits, and margins have all grown as a result of the strong operator performance and the improving quality of the contracts that we have won and we deliver.
The photos show the Horseshoe Wastewater project that we're working on and completing for Southern Water again. The environment that we operate in, in upgrading the whole of the Cadent Gas network in the east of England, a huge area and a big upgrade. The new contract we've won for Urenco is going to unlock the nation's nuclear energy future. In water, we've had an incredibly positive close to AMP7. We achieved 100% of the regulatory date commitments that we made to our customers and that our customers had made to the regulators. That's for over 100 projects. Our focus now is very clearly on successfully mobilizing AMP8, and we have good visibility of the contract pipeline from 2025 through to 2030.
We continue to expect that doubling of investment in AMP8 compared to AMP7, and we're expecting high investment levels, even higher investment levels in AMP9, and positively a number of our contracts for United Utilities, Northumbrian Water, and Southern Water extend into AMP9. You'll have seen that water resilience is an absolute critical area of focus, whether it be reservoirs, etc. We were really pleased that in June, we announced a five-year extension to our Anglian Water program for the strategic pipeline. This project will bring resilience to the east of England. It gets less rain than Israel, quite staggering. We are building a pipeline that will transfer water from areas where there is plenty of water resilience to areas where there is very little water resilience. During the first half of this year, really pleased that we've now turned on Tideway.
We've commissioned it, it's now operational, and that is going to transform the health of the River Thames and safeguard London's growth for the future, a really important milestone. In energy, our performance on the Cadent framework continues to be fantastic, and we commenced the delivery of BP's landmark carbon capture and storage project at Teesside. Building on our extensive gas process expertise, we were awarded two design contracts for a new customer, Storage Energy, to develop the design for pioneering underground hydrogen storage projects in Cheshire. We see future growth in supporting the decarbonization of the U.K.'s energy system as a great opportunity for us, both through gas distribution, where we have huge capability, but also through electrical transmission and distribution, where we are working and building a strong capability at the moment.
Defence and nuclear energy continues to grow well, with our activities associated with the Continuous At Sea Defence Programme in defence. This is continuing to expand, and we're working around the nuclear decommissioning and nuclear asset life extensions as well. As I said before, we're really pleased to, in the period, have added Urenco to our customer list, securing a program delivery partner contract with them for its Cheshire site, critical to providing the fuels that will support our new nuclear future. All part of the Great British Nuclear Drive for Change, to deliver cheaper, cleaner, and more secure energy. We've also won consultancy contracts to support the delivery of Sizewell C, and with DESNZ, and bidding levels in this marketplace are really busy. Overall, we're really pleased that we've delivered another positive operational performance in the first half of this year.
Growth in operating profits, growth in margins, and securing significant volumes of high-quality long-term work. We expect further progress in the second half of the year on the back of a very busy volume of bidding, and we're confident in delivering expectations for this year and for next year and for delivering that step-changing growth into 2027. Helen.
Good morning. First of all, just to show that even as a bean counter on the team, I know what we're doing. This picture is HS2. It's the Victoria crossover box. This is where we have launched the TBMs from, the tunnel boring machines. If you haven't seen one, I've been lucky enough to be on one. They're over 100 m long. It's like a huge manufacturing production line. It is quite something to see, and I just think it brings to light the scale and the complexity of what we do. I'm really pleased to be here. Here we are again, delivering another strong set of results, as Alex has been saying. We really are building momentum. We're increasing our operating profit. The margin is continuing to increase.
The forward work position is growing and the right quality, the right risk profile, all underpinning our confidence and expectations, a strong platform for growth. I'll take you through the detailed slides. As Alex has been saying, revenue of GBP 525 million for the half, down from last year, with significant growth in natural resources, but offset by that expected reduction in transportation, as has already been covered. Adjusted operating profit up 3.1% , GBP 16.8 million, in line with expectations, and reported operating profit up as well, 18% to GBP 16.4 million. We saw continued margin improvement, with an adjusted operating margin increase of 70 basis points to 3.2% compared to 2.5% last year. We remain on track to deliver an adjusted operating margin run rate of 4.5% during the course of FY 2025, and that's in line with our ambition to deliver margins in excess of 5%.
Adjusted basic earnings per share for the half was down very slightly at GBP 5.5 against GBP 5.6 in H1 2024, and that's driven by a lower level of net finance income. We've enhanced shareholder returns with a significant increase, albeit a fairly modest interim dividend of GBP 0.01 . We continue to maintain a strong balance sheet with net cash of GBP 144.9 million at the end of the half, and year-end net cash expected to be around GBP 170 million, in line with expectations after accounting for the share buyback. We delivered a further increase in the high-quality forward work book, which stands at GBP 5.6 billion at the end of the half.
Turning to revenue, this walk takes you through the movements in the two divisions, and you can see the two red bars there, the revenue reductions in roads, as expected, driven by a reduction in National Highways schemes on certain projects where we are completing or nearing completion, partially offset by the growth in TFL. In rail, there were revenue reductions principally because of the previously mentioned rephasing by the client of some of our HS2 program. There continues to be growth in integrated transport revenue, mainly reflecting the growing volumes at Heathrow, where we support both our H7 terminal asset renewal partner and major project partner frameworks. In natural resources, there's stable revenue in water as the water industry transitioned from AMP7 to AMP8 regulatory cycle, and our work near its completion on Tideway, as Alex was mentioning. Typically, between AMP cycles, we've seen a period of reduced volume.
However, the stable volume profile really demonstrates that we've had a positive close to AMP7, and water companies are beginning to scale up for AMP8. We also saw increased revenues in energy. We provide our customers in this sector with a range of services, including engineering design, managed services, and program management, solving our customers' complex needs. We delivered an increase in defense and nuclear energy revenues as well in the half, driven by growth in our current delivery partnership roles. Moving on to the operating profit walk, I'll take you from left to right. The reported operating profit increased 18% from GBP 13.9 million in the first half last year, and that's shown on the far left of the chart, to GBP 16.4 million in H1 2025, shown on the far right.
Adjusted operating profit, shown in the light blue bars, grew by 3.1% to GBP 16.8 million in the first half from GBP 16.3 million last year. Adjusted operating margin increased, as I said, to 3.2% from 2.5% last year. Adjusting items, only GBP 4.4 million, lower than the GBP 2.4 million in the same period last year. Costs in H1 this year were comprised of GBP 0.2 million, with residual costs of the transformation program that we completed last year, and GBP 0.2 million of restructuring costs. Coming into the middle of the chart, divisional operating margin for transportation decreased 5.8 points to 2.3% due to the previously mentioned lower volumes in road and rail, together with increased investment to support targeted growth opportunities. Natural resources operating profit increased to GBP 16.1 million from GBP 8.4 million in the first half.
Divisional operating margin increased by 3.4 points to 7.7%, benefiting from higher volumes, improved contract performance, and successful contract finalizations as we transition from AMP7 to AMP8. Central costs increased by GBP 0.7 million in the prior period, and that's driven principally by increased share-based payment costs. Net finance income in H1 2025 decreased by GBP 1.8 million as compared to GBP 3.1 million last year. This was driven by GBP 2.6 million of interest income from bank deposits, lower than H1 2024 of GBP 3.5 million, reflecting lower bank deposits and interest rates. We also incurred GBP 1.1 million of interest payable on bank facility fees, which was higher than GBP 0.7 million in the previous period, reflecting the accelerated amortization of charges relating to our prior refinancing.
The interest income on net assets of the pension scheme was slightly higher than H1 2024 at GBP 1.5 million due to a higher pension scheme asset position over the year. Interest expense on lease liabilities was GBP 1.2 million under IFRS 16, higher than H1 2024 due to the higher charges on new property leases entered into during the prior year. The balance sheet continues to strengthen, with net assets increasing from GBP 235.7 million at December 2024 to GBP 243.5 million at June 2025. Non-current assets have decreased on the prior period and position, driven by a small increase in the retirement benefit asset, which is more than offset by other non-current assets, which are lower than FY 2024, largely reflecting depreciation on our fixed assets. Trade sequels and other current assets increased on FY 2024 position, driven by higher contract asset positions.
Trade payables and other liabilities decreased on FY 2024, largely due to a reduction in subcontractor accruals. The cash walk, again, I'll lead you through this left to right. You'll see on the left, net cash of GBP 158.5 million at the beginning of the period, moving to the far right, GBP 144.9 million, closing net cash at the end of the half. The first bar represents cash flow on adjusting items of GBP 0.4 million, as I just mentioned. Adjusted free cash flow of GBP 3 million outflow is shown in the next area, the boxed area. This cash flow reflects the timing-driven working capital flows around the period end. We also incurred a nominal GBP 0.1 million on CapEx. The next bar represents net asset receipts in the year of GBP 0.5 million, lower than our net finance income on payment of accelerated arrangement fees on the prior refinancing, as I just mentioned.
It's worth noting that the operating lease expenditure is shown separately from cash on operations and was GBP 4.8 million for the half. Our dividend payments totaled GBP 4.9 million, following the increased final dividend declared at FY 2024. Lastly, we also acquired GBP 1 million of treasury shares during the half. We expect our FY 2025 year-end net cash position to be around GBP 170 million, in line with our prior expectations after taking account of the GBP 10 million share buyback program and higher dividend payments. In line with the agreed reduced deficit contribution plan with the trustee of the group's defined benefit pension scheme, we made no contributions to the scheme during the half. An assessment of the scheme funding position was carried out in March 2025, and as the funding level was more than 101%, contributions remained paused from July 2025 to June 2026.
These contributions would have amounted to GBP 3.4 million for the period should the scheme funding level have been less than 101%. Excuse me just a moment. I seem to get cold for half years. Finally, I'm happy to announce that we've been reconfirmed as one of the top fastest-paying lead contractors in construction, paying 97% of invoices within 60 days. That's a critical factor in supporting our quality supply chain. Moving on to cash and banking facilities, and just to pull out the elements of it, the net cash position at the end of H1 2025 comprised Costain cash balances of GBP 85 million, cash held by joint ventures of GBP 59.9 million, and borrowings of nil. During the half, the group's average month-end net cash balance was GBP 149.4 million, which is shown on the left on the chart, and the average week-end net cash balance was GBP 152.9 million.
You can see a real consistency in the way we manage our cash. During the half, on the 28th of May 2025, the group announced that it had successfully concluded negotiations with its bank and surety facility providers to refinance a new four-year agreement of its bank and bonding facilities to September 2029, with an option to extend by a further year. The group's new facilities agreement replaces a previous three-year facilities agreement to 2026 and comprises a GBP 100 million revolving credit facility, which was previously GBP 85 million, and surety and bank bonding facilities of GBP 295 million, previously GBP 270 million. The existing banking group remained, and we were really pleased to be able to add another bank to the group.
There was a further increase, as we've mentioned, to our forward work position, which stood at GBP 5.6 billion at the end of the half, representing more than 4x our annual revenue from last year. We've been busy building, and the forward work has continued to grow. GBP 4.3 billion at H1 2024, GBP 5.4 billion at full year 2024, and now at GBP 5.6 billion for the end of the first half of 2025. We continue to bid and continue to see opportunities to further increase this position. The forward work position is built on long-term programs. It enables us to deliver high consistency, continuity, and quality of work for our customers. As at the end of H1 2025, really importantly, it included no single-stage lump sum contracts and was predominated by target cost contracts, where the scope of the work, design, and cost are developed and agreed with the client.
That's to say the forward work consists of the right risk profile to ensure predictable delivery of results. Our order book stood at GBP 3.4 billion at the period end, up from GBP 2.5 billion at the end of FY 2024. The preferred bidder book stood at GBP 2.2 billion at the end of the half, down from GBP 2.9 billion at the end of FY 2024, as work won shifts into our order book. It comprises contracts for which we've been selected on frameworks where a further works order is required prior to the works commencing. It's important to also note that some of our framework and consulting revenue isn't included in the order book or the preferred bidder, and therefore is incremental.
This, together with existing frameworks, gives us increasing visibility and confidence in delivering progress in FY 2025 and 2026, with a step change in performance in both revenue and profit from FY 2027 and beyond. As I've mentioned before, we've transformed our business. We've transformed it in terms of assured delivery, lower risk contracts in our forward work, improved operational effectiveness, cost control, and a broader business mix. This has driven the quality of the forward work, the right risk profile, the right contractual terms, and hence the right conditions for predictable delivery of results. We continue to invest in the business to bring in the skills needed to drive improved performance across the entire business and across the contract duration. Some examples of what we've been up to this first half.
We've continued to improve the quality of the finance team, reaching deeper into the projects, bringing new challenge into contract delivery. We've invested in and are implementing a risk system that takes a view of risks from projects all the way through to corporate risk, hence digitalizing our risk practices. We further enhanced our operational controls, particularly in the area of integrated project controls. This focus drives the path to higher margins, as demonstrated by a continued margin progression, and you can see us increasing from the prior period. We've delivered a further year of margin improvements, up 40 basis points to 3.4% in the half year, and we remain on track to deliver adjusted operating profit margin of 4.5% during FY 2025. Costain continues to perform, as hopefully you have heard from our presentation today, against its strategic targets and expects to deliver long-term sustainable value for its stakeholders.
Costain is investing for growth. Our cost base continues to prioritize investment in capabilities and expertise to support growth. We will continue investment in key systems as we digitalize the business, further accelerating our business transformation. We expect to invest around GBP 10 million in CapEx across FY 2025 and 2026 in these areas. The board recognizes the importance of dividends for shareholders and has been increasing the dividend payout since its resumption in 2023. Dividend payments take into account the cash flow generated in the period and the impact of the current dividend parity arrangement relating to the defined benefit pension scheme. The board has a target dividend cover of 3x adjusted earnings, which provides headroom for further dividend growth to achieve the target cover level as and when the current dividend parity arrangement is no longer in place.
In line with the board's dividend policy and the previously stated intention to normalize, excuse me, normalize H1/H2 dividend split to a 33.67% ratio, an interim dividend of GBP 0.01 per share has been declared for the six months ended 30th June 2025, a significant increase compared to the prior period interim dividend of [GBP 0.40] per share. I mentioned in an earlier slide that pension contributions have stopped for the year, as the funding level of the scheme at March 2025 was more than 101%. This also means that dividend parity with the pension scheme was suspended for a further year from July 2025 to June 2026. A further annual evaluation will be carried out as of March 2026, which will enable the board to review future capital allocations. We continue to review options for restructuring the defined pension scheme with a new sole trustee.
After ensuring a strong balance sheet and cash position, identified surplus capital will be returned to shareholders through share buybacks and special dividends. On the 16th of June 2025, the group launched a GBP 10 million share buyback program, which completed on the 15th of August 2025. That followed a GBP 10 million share buyback program that was announced and completed in H2 2024. There is real momentum in our chosen markets of transport, water, energy, and defense and nuclear energy. A high quality and volume of our forward work, together with growth on existing frameworks, gives us good visibility on future revenue and profit. We've already approximately 90% of our forecast revenue for FY 2025 secured at the end of H1 2025, and our bidding levels remain high.
We remain on track to deliver an adjusted operating margin run rate of 4.5% during the course of FY 2025, in line with our ambition to deliver margin targets in excess of 5%. Our balance sheet continues to strengthen, our net cash of GBP 144.9 million, and our year-end net cash expectations of GBP 170 million, and the increasing level of our interim dividend and the completion of our share buyback program. All this makes us confident in delivering our progress in FY 2025 and FY 2026, and that step change in revenue and profit for FY 2027. With that, I'll hand you over to Alex.
Thank you, Helen. Right, I'm now going to give you an update on the strategy and sort of business outlook. This photograph shows the contract I was talking about earlier. This is Gallows Corner for Transport for London, where we are going to be removing, or we have removed already. If you live locally, you'll be feeling it. We've removed the flyover, and we're replacing it with a much stronger, sturdier flyover, and we're reconfiguring the whole gyratory system there, all part of Transport for London's plans about improving connectivity into London. We're delivering against a very clear strategy for the growth and development of Costain, which, with our customers and our partners, will create a sustainable future for the U.K., a more prosperous U.K., a more resilient U.K., and a decarbonized U.K. We're focused on markets where strategic long-term investment is being made to meet these needs.
That's across transportation, water, energy, defence, and nuclear energy. Investment to meet these critical national needs, as I've said earlier, is increasing, and in every one of our chosen markets, we see significant opportunities for us to grow in line with that increasing investment, but also for us to increase our market share. We purposefully only work with Tier 1 customers who choose to work with their partners in long-term strategic partnerships, where Costain can build a real depth of relationship and maximize the value that we add to them. We deliver both capital programs as a contractor and provide valued consultancy services through our broad expertise. This strategy will deliver growth in revenues, operating profits, and margins in line with the stated targets we've got.
It will strengthen the balance sheet as we focus on growing in those critical markets, working in strategic long-term partnerships with our customers, and providing that broader service offering to meet our customers' changing needs. Now, our chosen customers in our markets predominantly operate through underwritten and committed five-year business plans, and they choose to work with us in five-year programs, sometimes, like in the water industry this year, 10-year programs. For us, this is a really positive market dynamic. What's making Costain successful and will drive our growth is three Cs. The first C is continuity. This is continuity of the relationships we have and where we work and how we work with our customer, critically important for long-term growth. The second C is consistency. What's positive is that we've got an increasing forward work view.
We're able to see five years' work ahead, and we have the continuity and consistency to be able to deliver that. The third C is collaboration. Every one of the contract forms that we work with with our customers is a collaborative form of contract where we jointly work together to develop the solution, work together to mitigate the risks, and then agree what we're then going to go deliver and execute. That is a critical enabler for us to drive margin growth and revenue growth and operating profit growth in this business. These markets and our customers' committed investment programs are increasing significantly and are enabling us to broaden our offer. I've talked before about the government's 10-year infrastructure strategy, an increase in road investment, increase in rail investment, increase in energy investment, and an increase in nuclear energy investment as they establish the Great British Energy.
We also see an increase in defense spending, which has been well publicized, and we're seeing that across our programs. Ofgem has approved the first GBP 24 billion of their RIIO- 3 program, with another GBP 80 billion to go. There's huge investment in the energy space. Heathrow, Manchester Airport, and Gatwick Airport, all of them are talking about significant airport growth, aside from their design plans awaiting government approval to add a few runways here and there. Clearly, massive investment going ahead in the airport sector. Of course, the water industry is now well into the biggest capital investment ever made in water, and with over GBP 100 billion worth of investment, and we know that AMP9 will be even bigger than that.
We continue to develop a track record, as you can see, for securing positions with our customers on these long-term frameworks and for attracting new customers to fall in love with Costain through these cycles. This is helping us build that growth for the business. We bring together a unique mix of experts. We're a very different organization who have a broad range of delivery expertise, where depending on our customer's approach, we act as both construction and consultancy partners. Today, we are a business that works with our customers to shape and create their solutions. We do that for people like Network Rail, for the Department of Transport, National Highways, Transport for London, water customers, clean energy customers, and others, where we implement design solutions, and we're also able to bring in our project controls and program management services to help them shape their programs.
We also expertly support the delivery of new infrastructure, primarily as a leading contractor, but also increasingly as a leading delivery partner or program manager for our customers' organizations. We also help our customers operate, optimize, and repurpose their existing infrastructure. For example, we've been helping a number of water customers to really optimize the performance of their water assets, their clean water assets, to help deal with the beautiful climate that we've had recently. We are uniquely focused, as a business, on our customers' whole ecosystem. Our conversation isn't just about what's your capital delivery requirements. Our conversation is around what are your broader business needs and challenges that we can help you with. That is helping us grow as a business and help us transform our customers' business performance. As I've said, we support many of our customers in the delivery of their capital programs.
As a contractor, we're helping customers across Thames Tideway, road contracts, nuclear energy contracts, moving into the HS2, the AMP8 programs, aviation, and for our devolved customers, a huge amount of work as a leading contractor. We're a growing consultancy business, which now generates around 16% of our revenue and has three very different capabilities. Firstly, we're growing our position as a delivery partner, and you'll have seen that we announced the award of the contract for Urenco, which joins the work we're doing for AWE, for Cadent, for BP, for Babcock, all of which we're running their capital programs for them. Secondly, we're growing our design and engineering capability, where we design solutions for our customers. Thirdly, how we support our customers, as I've said, to help them optimize their overall business performance.
As a result of our focus on those critical markets and broadening our customer base, we've expanded our strong forward work position, which this slide shows you, to GBP 5.6 billion, over four times the annual revenues of this business. As I said before, we remain incredibly busy bidding further programs of work. We have strong positions with a growing number of Tier 1 customers across all of our sectors, with an increasingly broader service line. The quality of our forward work position is a result of a rigorous approach, as Helen said, to contract selection and the expertise that we have in our key markets and the broader business service that we provide.
In final summary, the improved quality of our contract portfolio, broader customer and service mix, and enhanced business resilience is driving our confidence in the delivery of our results for full year 2025 and our medium-term expectations for growth. As I've said, and I hope you've got across, there is real momentum in this growing investment in infrastructure in all of our target markets. There is greater clarity of it. We've got the details, the government's behind it, the regulators are behind it. It's happening, and we're very excited. Set against this improving market outlook, we've been able to increase further the high-quality forward work position to GBP 5.6 billion, and I'm very encouraged that there'll be further announcements in the second half of the year.
We retain a very strong balance sheet with GBP 145 million worth of net cash, which is enabling us to continue to invest in this business for growth and to be able to increase returns to our shareholders. Bringing this all together, we remain confident in the further progress of the business, how we will deliver this year, next year, and step change the growth in operating profits, revenues, and margins for 2027 and beyond. Thank you very much, and we'll take your questions.
Thanks. [Aislee Lamming] from InvesTech. I think I've got three, actually, please. First, around the working capital, just maybe a bit more color there. I assume, given you're maintaining your full year expectation for net cash, is that all timing? Is there no change to kind of cash conversion or anything underlying that? Second question, just on the natural resources margin in H1. Obviously, good margin. Maybe it's a bit more explanation around that finalization of AMP7. What boosted the margin? Do you expect that to also occur in the second half? Last question, just on the step change in FY 2027. Just remind us the main drivers there. Is that mainly the margin, improved management? Is it the water? What's kind of given you the visibility and confidence there?
Do you want to do the first two?
I'll do the first two. Yeah, so working capital, very much timing over the half year. Confident in that GBP 170 million by the end of the year, which is in line with expectations. We talked about four years, so it's GBP 180 million less the impact of the share buyback and increased dividend. The real increase at the half year is contract assets. They will unwind in the second half, and you'll see that there's an H2 bias to profit and therefore cash in the second half. No concerns on the balance sheet items at the half, very much timing differences through the half, which will unwind in the second. Natural resources margin, yes, very high in the first half. I'd expect the second half to be similar. The major driver in there is in the water sector. We've talked a lot about our cautiousness in revenue and profit recognition.
As that plays through, you'd expect at the end of contracts there to be upside rather than downside. You really are seeing that in the water sector now. As we close out AMP7 into AMP8, you've got a real concentration of those contract closings that are giving us upside. I'd expect the second half to be similar to the first half. As we get into next year, I would expect it to come back to a more normalised level as we're into sort of the midst of delivery, particularly in water.
Yeah, and if I look at 2027, what's going to drive that? A big underpin is the quality of the contracts that the business now has in its portfolio and the assured way that we deliver those contracts. That's a really important underpin, which is why we've consistently now delivering the margins that we're delivering. The second thing is just the growth in the forward work. We've grown a significant volume. We have the clear visibility of that work, which is great for us to be able to plan on. Also, you've seen that we've grown the consultancy business as well. That really helps us from a margin point of view to deliver that growth. The third thing is just the visibility we've got on the other work that we would expect to secure as well.
Very clear visibility of that, and actually some of it we're making pretty good progress on. Those would be my three things.
Thank you. [Jo Brent from Family Leaver], I've got three questions as well. I think following on nicely from that, you've referenced several times potential work winning in the second half. Could you give an indication of what sort of areas we might expect to see that work winning? Secondly, I think consensus assumes some EBIT growth in the second half over the first half, but also over last year. Could you give us an indication of where that second half improvement comes from? Thirdly, you talked about options for the pension fund. Could you just elaborate what those might be?
Oh, I've got this. You're getting the lion's share. I'll take the first one, and you can do the other two. This is going to sound a bit, you know, you would say this, wouldn't you? The bidding activity is across every single one of our markets, incredibly, even further work in water, even after having won a huge amount of work already. All of our sectors are incredibly busy, and we would expect to make announcements. We're certainly seeing very high volumes in the nuclear energy space at the moment, and also across transportation. There's quite a lot going on. There's a lot going on in aviation, a lot going on in roads, and then water. We continue to explore for new opportunities to unlock greater value there. Those would be the areas, and you know, it's a great market to be in. We're well placed.
Profit expectations, consensus operating profit for the full year is circa GBP 46 million, and we are confident in delivering that. It is, as I said before, very much H2 weighted. There's some volume impact into the second half, and there's also some of those contract closeouts that I was referring to, giving us a real uplift to profit and cash in the first half. I think some people have said to us, isn't that just one-offs? The answer is, in our view, no. This is really the consequence of the caution that we've applied in our revenue and profit recognition over the years. As contracts come to their completion, you get the upsides coming through. Our plans are detailed. We're very confident in them, and therefore confident that we'll reach that consensus number.
Pension fund, we talked at full year about, we've obviously been giving you the details of the annual checks, which has given us some optionality. We are now knee-deep in the triennial valuation, hoping to complete that before next March, the full year results there. We're looking at all options, as you might expect, including buy-in, buy-out, but those have become more expensive over the last few months. We are working well and collaboratively with our sole trustee to get the best possible outcomes for the company. More to say on that come the full year results, hopefully.
Good morning, Andrew Nussey from Peel Hunt. A couple of questions, please. First of all, in terms of HS2, I think you used the phrase they're still being rephased. What visibility do you have on that process and the likely movement there? Associated with that, are there any issues around the supply chain, given that lower level of volumes versus what you still are committed to deliver near term? For Helen, just obviously in terms of those AMP7 completions, profit back-ended, should we expect the same sort of contract structures for AMP8 in terms of the profit recognition, please?
Thanks, Andy. On HS2, clearly it's been well publicized. They've been doing a new integrated program to complete the railway. As a result, for the section of work that we're working on, they've looked to exploit the opportunity to rephase some of that and focus on some of the other areas. That is a short-term rephasing and will be then delivering that work in a couple of years' time. That isn't causing us any issues with the supply chain. We're able to manage our way through those changes.
Contract construction. We've been working very hard, as we've been explaining over the last few years, on understanding the risks that we take on in a much deeper way and working on how we transfer the risk between contractor and client and working on our Ts and Cs. As we moved into AMP8, where we were extremely successful with our wins and gaining some market share, we were able to use the demand from those water companies to tighten up those Ts and Cs, I would say. The construction is by and large the same, but the terms and conditions and the risks that we have taken on are better for us. We believe it's more balanced. Therefore, we should expect to see better delivery coming out of the AMP8 contracts.
Thank you.
Hi, morning. It's [Ed Prass from Bamberg]. Firstly, on margin, you've suggested that you're on track for the 5%+ target beyond 2025. Is it reasonable to think that that could become a full year target rather than a run rate as you go beyond that? Secondly, quickly on mix, 60/40 in H1, is that reasonable going forward or do you expect transport to revert to higher levels? Contract size, I know HS2 and Tideway have been very large. Are you able to give us a sense of what sort of average contract size in your order book is?
Should I do the first one?
I'll let you do the first two.
The first two, okay.
It's a sort of theme.
Margins, we set the margin milestones, I think two and a half, getting on for three years ago, the 3.5% in FY 2024, the 4.5% during FY 2025. Thinking about those as second half margins, you can see from where we've got to with 3.4% the first half. If you look at consensus, that suggests full year, therefore we'll be beginning with a full. We're reasonably confident of that industry leading on its own at 4%. We will continue to push. We'll continue to push for us to be more efficient. We'll continue to push for the better risk transfer. As we grow, as the volume comes through, there is operating leverage that will help that as well. Could we get to 5% for the full year? That's certainly a possibility, but I wouldn't say it's coming straight after FY 2025.
All of our plans show us progressing as we have been over the last three years. The mix, I think transportation will be similar for the second half. We do think that there'll be growth coming back into FY 2026 and definitely into FY 2027. Natural resources will be fairly steady H1 on H2. There's more coming through in transportation, as Alex, you were describing. Really kicking into things like the M60, HS2 volumes will come through in FY 2026. Integrated transport is where there's real growth opportunity with the aviation contracts. I think overall there should be more positive news coming through there.
Coming to the sort of contract size bit, we don't quote that because, as you know, HS2 would be very distorting. HS2 is a very big one-off program, which we've been involved with. The current contract that we, if you look at the contracts, we've won seven contracts on the HS2 program, and we continue to deliver that. If you look at water, you range anything from a GBP 6 million project up to a GBP 100 million project in those programs. We deliver those for all the water companies. If I look at what we do in the nuclear energy space from a decommissioning point of view, it is lots of GBP 2 million - GBP 14 million contracts. Defence and nuclear energy, where we're the delivery partner, our contracts are reasonable in size, but they are program management.
If you look at what we're running, we're running multi-billion pound programs for the client, but our contracts would be in the GBP 60 million - GBP 70 million worth of work. That gives you a bit of a flavor. We don't really quote because we'd have to give a bit more detail by sector for people to understand it.
Thanks. [Johnny Kuber] from Deutsche Numis. Just to clarify, you've guided to a step up in revenue, revenue growth, margins, and EBIT in FY 2027. Does that mean that you expect all of those to improve in FY 2026 and then they?
Do we do?
No.
So they.
I thought there'd be three.
I thought there'd be three as well.
I can ask them all at the same time.
Great question .
2027 is definitely revenue and profit growth. There should be margin improvements through 2025, 2026, 2027, as I was just describing. FY 2026, definitely operating profit growth coming through, and I'd anticipate some modest revenue improvement as well.
Thanks. Just on that point, on the margins, what do you view as sustainable margins across each of the divisions? You mentioned contract gains this year.
If you look at the margins achieved for FY 2024, 3.5% in transportation and sort of circa 6% in natural resources, that feels like a steady state. As I say, there'll be operating leverage coming through as we grow in 2027 and beyond. That will help to further increase.
Thanks. The third one and last one, which is to be a follow-up on the working capital. It's certainly a statement. There was a bit of a working capital unwind on lower volumes. What do you think the sustainable level of negative working capital relative to revenue should be going forward? Also, is it more weighted towards transportation in terms of that working capital effect?
The working capital effect is across both divisions. For example, in natural resources, as we close out those contracts, some of that profit is pushed into H2 and therefore cash. In transportation, there are a number of contract closeouts as well, and those will kick into H2. I think it really is a function of the number of contracts that we are in that sort of closeout process, and hence how it straddles the half year, but confident that it will unwind and support that GBP 170 million at the end of the year.
Hi there, Max Hayes from Cabinet. Just a couple of questions from me. A notable increase in the consultancy revenue mix. What levels do you expect this to settle at as revenue from construction contracts grow and the potential impact on margins if that lowers as a share? The GBP 10 million of CapEx that you discussed for over FY 2025 and FY 2026, is that just primarily focused on digitizing the risk management and the benefits to be gained from digitizing that? Is that securing margins? Is that potential for expanding them? Just some more color there.
Okay, if I take the first one and then you take the second one. I mean, we give, we now give the consultancy sort of share of the revenue. That allows you to work out what the size of that consultancy business is. Will it remain that % or will it increase or will it decline? That will depend on the sort of mix of the business as to certainly as we get into AMP8 we'd see construction work going up and as we get into the systems contracts on HS2 again that will be construction volumes going up. We will be also increasing the consultancy. In real terms, as a unit, it will be increasing in volume. The really big value is those delivery partner contracts where we have big teams there for a long time supporting and basically acting as the client's organization.
We're making really good progress under Jonathan's leadership, who's here, to turn around and grow that design and engineering. That really is moving forwards at a great pace. We're doing a lot more design and engineering for ourselves where we can actually charge a fee into the client for doing that. Also, more and more clients are buying that direct from us as a consultancy business. We've got big ambitions in that area.
Digital transformation or digitalizing ourselves, which I've been taught is the correct term, is absolutely not. I think this is a really exciting area for us. The GBP 10 million is an estimate for 2025, 2026. We've brought in a transformation lead who has done this in other places, and we think there's a really exciting opportunity for us to properly digitalize how we deliver the work that we do. I think it will differentiate us in the markets. The GBP 10 million is not just a risk system; it's across a number of things. If I just remind you, we invested in the HR system last year, which took six systems down to one and has given us efficiencies, but also given us much more visibility on our people and their skills and where we move them. Risk, as I said, is giving that transparency to our risk practices.
What we're moving into now is really the heart of how we deliver. I could bang on about this for a long time, but I think this is not about peripheral systems. We will get onto those, but this is about how we really digitalize the activities when we're on the ground delivering the work that we do. That will give us better data and more visibility, should drive better delivery certainty and outcomes. I think for us, if we do this right, and I believe we're gathering the right people around us to do this, it could be a real differentiator for us, a very exciting space.
Great, thank you very much.
Thank you for the number of questions from the webcast. First question is, given the very strong net cash position, what are the considerations of increasing the buyback program?
Similar to how we described it at the full year, I think it is great. The balance sheet is stronger, the net cash position is strong. There are a few factors to consider.
Whether we carry out further buybacks or choose to do a special, for example, first off, we have a three-times dividend policy, so we are mindful that that needs to be moved towards. We also have, I think it's important to recognize the liquidity of our cash. As I pulled out, there's what we call Costain cash, which is fully liquid for us. It's the GBP 85 million, but then cash held in joint ventures. It's our cash, but it's not fully liquid. When I'm thinking about how much cash do I need, it's the Costain cash of GBP 85 million that's important. Lastly, the dividend parity with the pension scheme, that is still in place.
We put the annual check in place that gave us optionality year on year, but until we have been able to remove that from the agreements with the trustees, we're mindful of that and we need to be cautious of what we commit to until such times as we've removed that parity clause. We're making good progress. Return to dividend, we've done the share buyback this year and last year, and those shareholder returns are much, much increased. We're working on the triennial, as I said, hopefully with some conclusions by the time we come back at the full year, so we should be able to be a bit more fulsome on that at the full year.
That's great. Thank you for that, Helen. Next question is from [Dan Hung] from East River Holdings. Regarding the cash held by joint ventures, does it get released at some point? How does it work?
Yes, it does get released. It's with a small number of substantial joint ventures. It's held as we earn profits through the joint venture. We receive the cash from the customer, and there are rules in all of the joint venture agreements as to how that cash is then distributed out to us as joint venture partners. The cash is always cycling, and you'll see it's come down a little bit as we've concluded some, or beginning to conclude the Tideway program, for example. You'll start to see the balances come down.
Next question is from Stephen Rawlinson. It says, "The text states, this forward work position is built on long-term programs that enable us to deliver high consistency, continuity, and quality of work for our customers. This constant revenue is not present today. What might we expect in the future in each key area, especially as revenue and transport is expected to be lower in H2?
Right. I think in answering Stephen's question, clearly the forward work position that we've got is what we've already secured and have visible, and that is supporting the growth. There is a lot of further work that we are working on and actively bidding at the moment, as I said earlier, in all of our sectors. If I look at roads, we can see a big pipeline of opportunities that we want to go at. Aviation, we've talked about, there's a number of opportunities we're pursuing that we would be hopeful on. Further water work, nuclear energy, very, very active, very busy bidding at the moment, opportunities in energy. There is a large pipeline, billions and billions of pipeline that we're bidding at the moment that we would hope to add to that.
I think if you look at the volume of forward work we've secured, that is pretty significant by any measure for a business of our size that will enable us to grow.
Another question from [Dan Hung]. What is the full-year 2025 revenue, profit, and margin guidance?
I'll give you the profit and margin guidance. Profit I mentioned earlier is GBP 46 million operating profit, and if you look at consensus, that means that the margin will begin with a 4%. It'll be 4.12%, I think, 1 or 2. The revenue will be relatively equal, half bond on, half to.
Okay, thanks very much. We have no further questions at the moment. Alex, I'll hand back to yourself for any closing remarks.
Thank you very much for all of you taking your time. As you can see, we're very excited with the progress that we're making, but we've got a lot of opportunity ahead that we've got to go and grab and capture. We look forward to updating you again in six months' time. Massive thank you. Have a good rest of your day, and above all, keep safe. Thank you.