To some people, dealing with rubbish may not sound like the most attractive line of work, but for Costain, one of the country’s oldest construction groups, it represents a big opportunity.

Yesterday the company announced it had won a £120 million contract from Von Roll Inova, the Swiss plant construction group, to design and build a big waste recovery site in southeast London. Work began on the Riverside Resource Recovery facility last month and, on completion, it will be able to process up to 585,000 tonnes of London’s residual waste from 2011 and will be able to generate electricity for 66,000 homes. It will also enable the majority of waste to be transported by river in place of more than 100,000 lorry trips a year.

Costain will contribute to the main site buildings as well as the integral jetties and roads. Andrew Wyllie, chief executive, said the contract was an important step forward for the company’s activities in the waste market and would also boost its reputation in cleaner energy generation.

Analysts reflected that, although the contract might not be the biggest in the world, worth an estimated £40 million a year, it would boost Costain’s credentials in the growing markets. Shares rose ¾p to 26¼p.

Shares in Ennstone, the building products supplier, slumped 1½p to 14½p after it agreed revised covenants for its US banking facilities, which are likely to require an additional injection of £11 million. The company said it was in talks with its banks about UK arrangements and that funding might be found by way of an asset disposal.

Templar Minerals lost 0.38p to 1p after it said that it had decided to withdraw temporarily the majority of its staff from its Adjara gold and base metals project in Georgia because of the present security situation.

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