Costain Share Discussion Threads

[mayers] 24/5/2023 21:05

Interesting that after the fall in the past week which I take to be some correction the SR price has stood up well in the otherwise general misery. I always think this is a good sign.
The US does seem to tie itself into knots and in recent months it has seemed that there have been several instances of overreaction. If you lack a balanced history you have constantly to create dramas. They will learn in time but it doesn't help to be the lead economy.

[catabrit] 24/5/2023 18:46

Scuttlebutt informs me that Costain are very busy on the water side with volumes ramping up this year and a significant amount of tendering over the medium-term (18-24 months).

[catabrit] 22/5/2023 15:29

Topped up at 50p.

[roguemale1] 22/5/2023 15:23

They're saving it up to pay my dividend....
No, normal for construction. The pendulum can swing very quickly.

[gotabsirius] 22/5/2023 14:44

Why is net cash so high?

It's almost equivalent to the market valuation? Do they have some major liabilities?

[catabrit] 22/5/2023 13:46

Not surprised to see this test 50p again. There’s such deep scepticism that even a ‘trading in line with expectations’ is deemed as a profit warning and a bit of mean reversion in the share price is deemed as something more sinister despite the lack of fixed price contracts on the books! So it goes. Think I’ll be finding things to sell if this continues to languish.

[hopeful holder] 22/5/2023 12:30

Possibly Pine Martin but I'd soon bomb out now and wait to see which way it goes before reinvesting, so I sold for a small loss today.

[pinemartin9] 22/5/2023 12:12

Looks a good point for a top up.

[casholaa] 18/5/2023 23:30

Yeah. As soon as they raise the cost of my metered water, I'll be peeing in a bucket to save that flush and feed the compost heap.

[catabrit] 18/5/2023 21:40

Interesting news today re the U.K. water sector. Not saying that Costain will be a direct beneficiary but over £5bn of investment spend is to be allocated soon.

[roguemale1] 18/5/2023 20:20

Normally, based on say Iraq, that would be based on who laid down the most arms and/or blood.
SO Bechtel. Again! LOL.

[casholaa] 17/5/2023 18:11

The question is 'Who will be re-building Ukraine?'

[catabrit] 17/5/2023 17:45

Costain’s history is fascinating. They should be as big as Balfour considering their pedigree but somehow through various strategic mishaps, poor management, bad incentives and bad luck they’ve squandered the chance. Let’s hope the future is brighter. I think we have a decent management team. I know Alex isn’t to everyone’s tastes but I think he’ll do a better job of captaining the ship than some of his predecessors.

[muckshifter] 17/5/2023 16:37

Unfortunately KLR are not in any way comparable to Costain these days. In the 70s Costain were, iirc, the UK's biggest overseas contractor, but now are almost exclusively UK, whereas KLR are now mostly overseas with a relatively small UK workload.

[disc0dave45] 17/5/2023 16:20

Keller issued a bullish trading update this morning.

[catabrit] 17/5/2023 12:08

He / she also downvotes everyone who disagrees with him / her which is a massive red flag. Was ramping everyone into Gattaca which is now off 25% from its highs. People like Blackhorse give the rest of us a bad name. I have no idea how they look at themselves in the mirror. No shame. No conscience. Zero integrity.

Waste of airtime.

[hamhamham1] 17/5/2023 10:32

Purplebricks must have been a tremendous imaginary investment :)

[owenski] 17/5/2023 10:18

The guy is a complete bellend and also pays a subscription to be so.

[blackhorse23] 17/5/2023 09:58

Switched to HARL

[roguemale1] 16/5/2023 11:26

I also hear they've got some more... er defence sector, work following on from the last lot.

[catabrit] 16/5/2023 11:18

Well in Sue Kershaw I trust. She sounds awesome. I was impressed by her from what I heard on the podcast. She also buys into Alex’s vision to turn the highways division into more of a project management led business over time.

[roguemale1] 16/5/2023 10:58

To be honest, its a long long time since I worked on a road job, more a "concrete farmer" for the last 30 odd years.
But the way that article is written suggests there is either a problem with Costain's pricing being too comfortable or HA budget being too low. Now probably a combination of the two-certainly cost advice client side usually lags reality in any part of the industry.
You get appointed preferred bidder and then the price is firmed up with the supply chain. So that's when its hit the fan. Now I have no idea if any of the other road market players would have been any better, but maybe fresh blood from outside wouldn't hurt. Because don't forget a few good long termers left when the current top tier was appointed. I'm not going back to that again because you and I have said enough on that topic, but you need people who can manage risk for the money. You can always just add loads of money to cover the risk but then you wont win any work...its a balance.

[catabrit] 16/5/2023 10:26

Thanks for sharing Rogue. You clearly have access to interesting market intel. I’ll do better to take on board more of what you say. Appreciate it.