Would anyone know why there has been such a large number of shares sold and no buying? Is there something we are not aware of?

RNS Number : 0576L

Costain Group PLC

26 July 2011

Costain Group PLC

("Costain" or "the Group")

Costain-Skanska Joint Venture awarded fourth Crossrail contract

Costain (COST.LN), one of the UK's leading engineering solutions providers, is pleased to announce that it has been awarded, in Joint Venture with Skanska, the contract to construct the Crossrail Paddington Station.

The project, which is worth approximately GBP150m, is the first station contract to be awarded as part of the GBP14.8bn Crossrail programme to create a new railway link between Maidenhead to the west of London and Abbey Wood and Shenfield to the East. Crossrail will boost London's rail-based capacity by 10 per cent, delivering new journey opportunities, faster journey times and up to 24 trains per hour between Paddington and Whitechapel during the peak.

The Crossrail Paddington Station is one of seven new underground stations to be constructed. It will be a key interchange with the existing Network Rail services at the Paddington Mainline station and with London Underground. The new Crossrail station in Paddington has been designed to maximise the station's space while preserving the historic features of the main line station. The new station will take the form of a 260m long, 25m wide and 23m deep underground box located directly under Departures Road and Eastbourne Terrace. Paddington will be just 9 minutes to Liverpool Street, 16 minutes to Canary Wharf and 27 minutes to Abbey Wood.

Construction will commence this year.

Andrew Wyllie, Chief Executive of Costain, commented:

"We are delighted to have secured our fourth Crossrail contract, reflecting our ability to consistently deliver valuable solutions in the rail sector utilising our broad range of capabilities and depth of expertise. We look forward to working with Crossrail to deliver this landmark station and to playing our part in enhancing London's transport infrastructure."

RNS Number : 7606M

Costain Group PLC

22 August 2011

Costain Group PLC

("Costain" or the "Group" or the "Company")

Acquisition of Promanex Group Holdings Limited ("Promanex")

Costain, one of the UK's leading engineering solutions providers, is pleased to announce that it has acquired 100 per cent of the issued share capital of Promanex, an industrial support services business providing facilities management, installation, repair and maintenance and general asset management in a number of high growth, specialist markets such as Power, Petrochemicals and Nuclear.

The consideration for the acquisition, together with management retention payments, is GBP16.4 million. In addition, the business is being acquired with normalised net debt of GBP2.4 million. The acquisition is being funded from the Group's existing cash resources.

Based in Warwickshire, Promanex operates across the UK and in Ireland with a workforce of over 800 highly skilled maintenance employees. The company's client base consists largely of such major blue chip customers as Conoco Phillips, EDF, E.ON, Magnox, RWE, Scottish and Southern Energy, Siemens and Total.

The business provides a range of services in the management, operation, maintenance and repair of customers' sites and plant assets, including hard and soft facilities management, water services, such as water treatment and hygiene, civil and industrial services, such as civil engineering, specialist industrial cleaning and outage support, and mechanical & electrical services such as power station materials handling, bi-product systems and emission treatment systems. Approximately 75 per cent of Promanex's revenues are generated from long term contracts and the business has a robust order book and strong pipeline of opportunities.

For the year ended 30 September 2010, Promanex reported revenue of GBP56.2 million, EBITDA of GBP2.4 million and operating profit of GBP1.8m. Gross assets as at 30 September 2010 were GBP20.8 million. The acquisition is expected to be earnings enhancing (before amortisation and exceptional costs) in the year ending 31 December 2011 and thereafter.

Promanex will be integrated into Costain's Infrastructure division and the existing management team will remain with the business to ensure a successful integration and continued growth in the business. The acquisition represents a further important step in implementing the 'Choosing Costain' strategy. It broadens the Group's capabilities in ongoing care and maintenance and strengthens the Group's presence in key growth target markets, particularly in Power, Nuclear Process, Hydrocarbons & Chemicals and Water, where significant investment is required in order to meet national needs. The combination of Costain's existing consulting, project delivery and maintenance capability, together with Promanex's operations and maintenance services, significantly enhances the Group's ability to offer full lifecycle services to customers in these target markets.

Commenting on the acquisition, Andrew Wyllie, Chief Executive of Costain, said:

"We are delighted to have completed the acquisition of Promanex, which represents a further important step in the implementation of our strategy of broadening our existing front-end consultancy and care and maintenance operations in order to meet customers' requirements. The acquisition will significantly enhance our existing ability to provide operations and maintenance support services to our major customers and reinforces Costain's position as a leading Tier One engineering solutions provider."

Mark R Dixon, Managing Director of Promanex, said:

"We are delighted to be joining Costain. Costain rightly has an outstanding reputation for applying technological expertise and innovation to add value to customers. Allied with Promanex's proven capabilities and market leading position in our core sectors, we will make a formidable team. Costain has an exciting future and we are very much looking forward to being a part of it."

RNS Number : 9953M

Costain Group PLC

25 August 2011

Costain Group PLC

("Costain" or the "Group")

Interim results for the half-year ended 30 June 2011

Costain, one of the UK's leading engineering solutions providers, announces another strong performance with profit before tax up 23%, reflecting the ongoing transformation of the business through the implementation of its 'Choosing Costain' strategy.


H1 2011 H1 2010 FY 2010
Revenue* GBP468.5m GBP533.4m GBP1,022.5m
Profit from operations GBP9.3m GBP8.8m GBP29.4m**
Profit before tax GBP10.1m GBP8.2m GBP27.9m**
Net cash GBP149.2m GBP133.9m GBP144.3m
Basic earnings per share 11.9p 10.0p 36.4p
Dividend per share 3.25p 3.00p 9.25p

* Including share of joint ventures & associates

** Including profit arising from PFI transfer / sales

-- Revenue of GBP468.5m (June 2010: GBP533.4m) following strategic decision to withdraw from lower margin activities

-- Profit from operations increased by 6% to GBP9.3 million (June 2010: GBP8.8 million)

-- Profit before tax up 23% to GBP10.1 million (June 2010: GBP8.2 million)

-- Basic earnings per share up 19% to 11.9p (June 2010: 10.0p)

-- Interim dividend increased by 8% to 3.25p (June 2010: 3.00p)

-- Enhanced net cash position of GBP149.2 million (June 2010: GBP133.9 million)

- average month-end cash balance of GBP132.8 million during first six months of the year (June 2010: GBP114.1 million)

-- Further major new contracts secured in the period, resulting in strong order book of GBP2.3 billion (June 2010: GBP2.5 billion)

- providing good long-term earnings visibility

- repeat order customers account for in excess of 80% of order book

- over GBP900 million of revenue secured for 2011 at half-year

- in addition, preferred bidder positions of over GBP400 million

-- Successfully implementing the 'Choosing Costain' strategy to broaden further Costain's Tier One capability across engineering consultancy, construction, and operations & maintenance in order to meet the changing service and procurement requirements of our major customers

-- Acquisition of ClerkMaxwell, an upstream oil and gas consultancy, in April 2011, with the integration proceeding smoothly

-- Completed this week the acquisition of Promanex, a business specialising in operations & maintenance in the energy, water and industrial sectors

-- Following the acquisitions and organic growth, c. 25% of Group revenues from now arise from consultancy and operations and maintenance activities

-- To support the future delivery of strategic objectives, total banking and bonding facilities recently increased by GBP90 million to GBP435 million

Commenting on the results, the Chairman, David Allvey, said:

"We are delighted with another strong set of results, with a significant increase in profit before tax, an enhanced cash balance, and a robust order book including further new contract awards from our major customers.

"The implementation of our 'Choosing Costain' strategy is transforming the Group, as we continue to develop or acquire the skills and capabilities to reinforce our position as one of the UK's leading Tier One engineering solutions providers.

"Looking ahead, despite continuing challenging market conditions, we see significant opportunity for the continued successful implementation of our strategy and the delivery of the Board's ambition of doubling profit over the medium term. The Board expects to report continued progress at the year-end in line with its expectations."

COULD BE BAD NEWS AHEAD !!!!!

Found out from a broadsheet journalistic source that things may not be as they seem.
Seems that Costain have been embroiled in a Public Interest Immunity battle ( now granted ) regarding financial indescretions - this follows on from a court battle where one of their divisional managing directors was 'retired' through ill health after being heavily criticised, integrity wise, by a panel of top judges that included Lord Rix.
Source says that a legal challenge is being formulated to try and reverse the granting of the PII. Therefore trouble is not over yet.
Does beg the question what is so important as to have information hushed up ? What have they been up to and why are senior officers being retired and criticised by top judges?

overthewall.
Costain up 3.86% this morning. Can we have a link to your comment please?

Yes- please post a link to the article. Both these and Carillion were tipped last week - I know, so what. The sector as a whole doing well today. COST is up 4.5% on 10.5k traded - some conviction would be nice.

FAO Optomist and Skinny,

Sorry there is no article at present, the broadsheet journalist mentioned will break his article once the forthcoming challenge to the Public Interest Immunity Cert. is complete. he will break it in two parts i.e. Main background and pre challenge then post challenge.
There are, however, many documents that are in the public domain and case number 201001652 C2 is a judgement handed down 25/01/11 by Lord Justice Rix, Mr Justice Hedley and Mr Justice Treacy and is freely available from the High Court of Justice, Court of Appeal. This document clearly criticises the Costain MD involved and it gives a good background to what has gone on, however, it does not give the full details as it upholds the application for the PII Cert. This was the document that first attracted the interest from the journalist. I have the document but cannot scan it our download it due to a knackered scanner . Hope this carries enough conviction.

You can sign up for it here.

Have you read the judgement yet ? They obviously stitched the guy up, however, what worries me is that if their honorable justices deemed what is quite damaging info acceptable for public consumption how bad is the info that is hidden by the PII ? The source tells me that according to 'official' sources ( and by that I think he means police ) the info is so explosive that it would sink them fairly quickly.
The other party involved is taking action to have the PII Cert revoked and have a civil judgement set aside.

As a Costain shareholder I am concerned with the previous posts. From what I can gather there has been some serious malpractice going on. In order that a Crown Court case could collapse in such a way, to my mind, indicates that crucial evidence was withheld from CPS and it is obvious that this evidence was of an extremely important nature. The Crown obviously hold Costain responsible for this. I think that the truth should be forthcoming to all investors so that they can make the informed decision that they are entitled to make.

This leads to all sorts of legal questions, including possibly perjury or perverting the course of justice.

F.A.O Intrigued. I don't know if an investigation is underway by any of the authorities and I don't know if any charges will be forthcoming. Maybe that was the reason for the PII Cert. i.e. to keep the integrity of the investigation. That's part of the problem - we just don't know.

Hmmm up on a general down day and ex dividend to boot!

Point taken skinny, however, the existence of the PII Cert. has been kept underwraps quite well - it is not really in the public domain and therefore has had no impact on sp.
Latest news is that the police are now investigating the conduct of one of their officers on matters relating to the PII Cert. How long that can be kept from widespread knowledge, I just don't know.

RNS Number : 9113Q

Costain Group PLC

27 October 2011

COSTAIN GROUP PLC

("Costain")

2011 Interim Dividend - Scrip Alternative

Costain announces that, following approval by shareholders at the Company's 2008 AGM of the scrip dividend scheme, elections have been made by shareholders to receive 43,377 ordinary shares of 50p each in the Company ("Shares") in lieu of cash in respect of all or part of their interim dividend for the year ended 31 December 2011 ("Interim Dividend"), which is to be paid on 28 October 2011.

The Scrip Dividend Reference Price for the fully paid shares in the Company to be issued to shareholders who elected to receive the scrip dividend alternative for the Interim Dividend is 222.95 pence per ordinary share of 50 pence each.

The Scrip Reference Price was calculated in the usual way as the average of the middle market quotations for the Company's ordinary shares as derived from the Daily Official List of the London Stock Exchange for the five business days commencing on 21 September 2011.

Application has therefore been made for the admission ("Admission") of 43,377 new Shares to the Official List of the UK Listing Authority and to trading on the London Stock Exchange's market for listed securities. The new Shares will rank pari passu with the Company's existing issued Shares and dealings are expected to commence on Friday 28 October 2011.

The resultant interest, upon Admission, of the Director who has elected to receive the Interim Dividend in the form of shares is set out below:

RNS Number : 2281R

Costain Group PLC

01 November 2011

Costain Group PLC

("Costain")

Costain Awarded Network Rail GBP400m London Bridge Station Contract

Costain, one of the UK's leading engineering solutions providers, announces that it has been awarded by Network Rail a major contract for the redevelopment of London Bridge Station.

Under the terms of the contract, which is worth c. GBP400m over five years, Costain will carry out the detailed design and delivery of the project. It will involve the provision of a new concourse at street level, with entrances on Tooley Street and St Thomas Street, which will increase passenger capacity through the station from c. 50m to c. 75m. Entrance and exit points will also be redeveloped to improve ease of access to and from the station.

The redevelopment of London Bridge Station is a key part of the Thameslink programme, which aims to increase significantly the total frequency of trains through the station per hour. Work is due to commence in full in 2013 and is scheduled for completion in 2018. Costain will ensure that the station remains fully operational at all times to minimise disruption to passengers.

Andrew Wyllie, Chief Executive of Costain, commented:

"We are looking forward to commencing work on this very important project, which reinforces our position as one of the UK's leading engineering solutions providers. Our focus is to design and deliver a world class London Bridge Station which enhances the capital's infrastructure and improves the journeys of the hundreds of thousands of passengers who pass through the station every day."

Still in....wonderful little company this.....the only bad point I think is the pension fund deficit that needs to be adressed if I'm not mistaken, but otherwise....

The sp has not really gone anywhere since before they consolidated, which at a guess was 2-3 years ago.
2517

Interim Management Statement.

Overview
Following the strong performance reported in the interim results announcement of 25 August 2011, the Group is continuing to perform well and trading is in line with the Board's expectations.

Costain continues to benefit from its 'Choosing Costain' strategy of focussing on targeted blue chip customers in chosen sectors whose major spending plans are underpinned by strategic national needs, regulatory commitments or essential maintenance requirements. The implementation of this strategy, enhancing the breadth and scale of Costain's service offering to encompass consulting and care as well as construction services, is transforming the Group into one of the UK's leading Tier One engineering solutions providers.

On 22 August 2011 Costain announced the acquisition of Promanex, an industrial support services business operating in the Power, Petrochemicals and Nuclear markets. The integration of this business is progressing well. The integration of Clerk Maxwell, the front-end engineering and operations support services provider operating in the upstream oil & gas sector and acquired earlier in the year, is complete.

Pre-Close Trading Update.

Costain, one of the UK's leading engineering solutions providers, will announce preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2011 on Wednesday 7 March 2012, and is issuing a trading update ahead of entering its Close Period.

Trading update

Since the announcement of the Group's Interim Management Statement on 7 November 2011, Costain continues to perform well and consequently finished the year in line with the Board's expectations.

As a result of its strategy of focussing on major public and private sector customers whose spending plans are driven by national need, regulatory commitments or essential maintenance requirements, Costain secured significant new contracts during the year, including:

- London Bridge Station redevelopment for Network Rail;
- Crossrail Paddington Station and advanced works at Crossrail Bond Street;
- A465 Heads of the Valleys road for the Welsh Government;
- Contracts for Northumbrian Water AMP5 and Severn Trent;
- Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) development of carbon capture technology;
- Decommissioning contract at Trawsfynydd nuclear site.

The Group finished the year with an increased forward Order Book of £2.5 billion (2010: £2.4 billion), which included in excess of £650 million of work secured for 2012 and over £1.8 billion of revenue secured for 2013 and beyond.

In addition, Costain has a strong preferred bidder position at circa £400 million.

The Group made two acquisitions during the year. ClerkMaxwell, the front end engineering support services provider acquired in April, and Promanex, the industrial support services business acquired in August, both of which are performing well.

Financial position

There has been no material change in the financial position of the Group, which has a strong cash position of in excess of £100 million and no significant borrowings.

Recently, the Group has further enhanced and extended its contract bonding and banking facilities with its relationship banks and surety companies. The facilities were increased by £30 million to £465 million and extended by two years to September 2015. These facilities ensure the Group has the necessary financial resources to capitalise on market opportunities as they arise and achieve its medium term objectives.