Civils contractor Renew Holdings grew its profit and turnover thanks to a boom in work in the water and infrastructure sectors, despite problems in the rail sector.
Renew – the 25th biggest contractor in the UK according to the CN100 2024 table – scored a pre-tax profit of £31m in the six months to 31 March 2025, up from £29.7m in the same period last year.
Turnover was also up by more than 10 per cent, coming in at £569.3m in comparison to £505.4m.
In an interim results announcement to the Stock Exchange this morning, the contractor highlighted an “incredibly successful” period in the water sector, and “consistent momentum” in the infrastructure and highways sector.
But Renew chief executive Paul Scott said the contractor had faced “unprecedented delay and deferment within certain rail renewals programmes”.
The firm previously warned in January that its full-year profit to 30 September would take a hit because of delays in Network Rail projects.
Scott said the six-month period had still been “transformational” for the business, after it moved away from the building sector last October to focus purely on civil engineering.
“Our increasingly diverse portfolio across our four pure-play engineering sectors and the increasingly impactful collaboration between our brands further enhances the resilience of our model,” he added.
Renew said it expected ongoing trading conditions in the rail sector to be “specific and isolated”.
“Looking ahead, we fully anticipate the stringent regulatory drivers in [the rail] sector will compel the execution of the critical planned renewals work bank across the network.” It also experienced an increase in demand for maintenance work, which helped to deal with the rail sector delays.
Following the “incredibly successful” AMP7 period within the water sector – which came to an end in March – Renew said it had entered its “strongest position yet” in AMP8.
“The opportunity within this sector is significant with the total addressable market for AMP8 having increased 94 per cent to £45bn,” it added.
It also said it expected the “consistent momentum” within infrastructure and highways to continue. National Highways’ £4.3bn investment plan, known as the Road Investment Strategy 2 (RIS2), came to an end in March.
Renew expects the budget for RIS3 to be “significantly greater” than the RIS2 budget.
Renew also made further provisions to deal with contractual claims against Allenbuild, which it sold to Places for People in 2014. As part of its agreement with Places for People, it retained a liability for historical “contractual disputes” associated with Allenbuild.
It revealed a £663,000 provision linked to Allenbuild – following a provision of £1.8m in March 2024 and a £3.5m provision in September.
The contractor’s cash reserves shrank year-on-year from £38m to £8.2m in its latest interim results, due mainly to the £49.3m acquisition of Netherlands-based wind turbine maintenance firm Full Circle Group Holding last October.
In terms of current liabilities, Renew took out a new £20m loan in the first half of its financial year.
The firm also paid out an interim dividend of £5m.