Costain Regulatory News (COST)

Costain Group PLC

26 July 2023

Costain Completes Refinancing of its Bank and Bonding Facilities

Costain Group PLC ("Costain" or the "Group") announces that it has successfully concluded negotiations with its bank and surety facility providers to refinance a new three-year agreement of its bank and bonding facilities.

The Group's new facilities agreement to September 2026 comprises an £85m sustainability-linked revolving credit facility (RCF), and surety and bank bonding facilities totalling £270m, with the reduction in facilities reflecting the Group's positive cash generation and cash position. This new agreement replaces the previous one-year "amend and extend" of its facilities from September 2023 to September 2024, as announced in November 2022.

The new facility is backed by a group of four banks and five sureties, with Lloyds Bank acting as coordinator, Lloyds Bank and HSBC as joint sustainability coordinators, together with Crédit Industriel et Commercial (CIC) and National Westminster Bank (NatWest), the latter being a new addition to the banking group.

Costain had a positive net cash balance of £123.8m as of 31 December 2022, comprising Costain cash balances of £67.3m and cash held by joint operations of £56.5m. The revolving credit facility was undrawn throughout 2022 and 2023 to date. Utilisation of the total bonding facilities as of 31 December 2022 was £88.8m (FY 21: £100.7m).

The sustainability linkage includes three key performance indicators (KPIs) relating to reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, spend with small, local business and charities, and an increase in gender diversity.

Alex Vaughan, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"I am pleased that we have successfully secured a new three-year facilities agreement, with Costain's continuing strong cash generation enabling us to reduce our overall level of bank and bond requirements for the Group. I am also delighted that NatWest has joined our banking group, demonstrating its confidence in our business plan."

Costain will issue its results for the six months to 30 June 2023 on 23 August 2023.

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Costain helps to improve people's lives by creating connected, sustainable infrastructure that enables people and the planet to thrive. We shape, create and deliver pioneering solutions that transform the performance of the infrastructure ecosystem across the UK's transport, energy, water, and defence markets.

We are organised around our customers anticipating and solving their challenges and helping to improve performance. By bringing together our unique mix of construction, consulting and digital experts we engineer and deliver sustainable, efficient and practical solutions.