Hercules shares pop on £6.2m of new contract awards

(Sharecast News) - Hercules announced a series of new contract awards worth about £6.2m for its Civils Projects division on Monday, strengthening its position in the UK water sector as the industry enters a major investment cycle. The AIM-traded firm said the agreements, due to start in the first quarter of its 2026 financial year, would be delivered over the next six months and support infrastructure upgrades at clean and wastewater treatment sites nationwide.

It said about £4.2m of the new work related to projects in the Thames Water region, with a further £2m awarded in the Anglian Water area.

The wins followed £6.5m of sector contracts announced in September.

Hercules noted that the awards came as Ofwat committed more than £104bn of regulated capital expenditure under the current Asset Management Period, known as AMP8, from 2025 to 2030.

The regulator's funding programme is the largest in the sector's history and was focussed on environmental improvements, pollution reduction, infrastructure upgrades and resilience to climate change.

Hercules said the scale of the investment would provide a pipeline of opportunities as projects accelerated over the next five years.

"These contract wins across the Thames Water and Anglian Water regions demonstrate the strength of our position in the UK water sector," said chief executive Brusk Korkmaz.

"With AMP8 now underway and the industry entering an unprecedented period of investment, our Civils Projects division is benefitting from the growing demand for our project delivery expertise."

He added that "the scale of opportunity in the water sector is considerable" and that Hercules was "well placed to support our clients as they upgrade critical water and wastewater infrastructure nationwide."

At 1246 GMT, shares in Hercules were up 7.56% at 44.1p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.