JJJacobs Solutions Inc.

Jacobs designs infrastructure — water treatment, transport, industrial facilities — and manages other people's construction.

The company sells engineering hours rather than finished facilities: design, calculations, construction supervision, programme management. That is less risky than a fixed-price contract, where overruns consume the profit, but the margin ceiling is also lower.

The customer is predominantly governmental: water utilities, transport agencies, modernisation programmes. Demand is supported by infrastructure spending and by replacing worn networks. The company spun off its government services arm to concentrate on infrastructure. Risks: customer budgets, engineer availability and currency rates. The dividend is small and buybacks are active.