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?

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.

This is so sensitive to small buys.
Does it worth investing?

COSTAIN

Panmure Gordon rates the engineering company “buy” with a target price of 230p ahead of the firm’s full year results on Wednesday. Panmure expects to see pre-tax profit of £22m, slightly behind consensus forecasts, and earnings per share of 26.2p

http://bit.ly/wPmSHB

The trading outlook is also expected to be key with infrastructure company Costain.

The company released a full-year update in January, confirming that trading had continued to perform well and that it would finish the year with results in line with expectations. The company said that its strategic focus on large public and private sector clients, where spending was driven by national need, regulatory commitment and essential maintenance, continued to benefit the group.

Accordingly, its order book had increased to £2.5 billion, supported by a healthy £0.4 billion preferred bid pipeline. The company has also secured a number of contracts in the past year including rail, road, utility and energy work.

According to Brown, the stock is trading on an "attractive" valuation of a 2012 PE ratio of between seven and eight times, with a dividend yield of 5%.

"We like Costain due to its exposure to large, complicated infrastructure projects. Post its interest in Mouchel (MCHL), its strategic ambitions are back on track with the addition of specialist capability (ClerkMaxwell and Promanex)," said Brown

http://www.iii.co.uk/articles/26994/week-ahead

COST COSTAIN

Broker Forecasts Digital Look premium

Costain Group PLC

FORECASTS WIRES 2011 2012
Date Rec Pre-tax (£) EPS (p) DPS (p) Pre-tax (£) EPS (p) DPS (p)

Panmure Gordon
05-03-12 BUY 22.00 26.20 10.20 23.00 27.10 11.00
Numis Securities Ltd
01-03-12 ADD
Peel Hunt
28-02-12 BUY 22.00 25.25 9.75 24.95 28.31 10.10
Arbuthnot Securities
06-01-12 BUY
Investec Securities
07-12-11 BUY 22.01 24.99 9.84 24.59 27.91 10.34

2011 2012
Pre-tax (£) EPS (p) DPS (p) Pre-tax (£) EPS (p) DPS (p)

Consensus 22.00 25.66 10.04 23.70 27.46 10.71
1 Month Change 0.00 0.11 0.06 -0.25 -0.16 0.12
3 Month Change 0.01 0.00 0.07 -0.31 -0.40 0.03


GROWTH
2010 (A) 2011 (E) 2012 (E)

Norm. EPS -26.24% 78.38% 6.99%
DPS 9.68% 18.13% 6.64%

INVESTMENT RATIOS
2010 (A) 2011 (E) 2012 (E)

EBITDA £18.30m £21.85m £22.90m
EBIT £15.70m £m £m
Dividend Yield 4.23% 5.00% 5.33%
Dividend Cover 1.69x 2.56x 2.56x
PER 13.97x 7.83x 7.32x
PEG -0.53f 0.10f 1.05f
Net Asset Value PS 57.63p p p

Great little company this.....with the pension being dealt with, should go a lot, lot higher if the market picks up.....

BullBearings ‏ @Bullbearings

Ahead of the game: Costain FY results due tomorrow. Analyst Andy Brown at Panmure says 'buy' as although UK... http://fb.me/1rpOBpiGQ

Final Results.

Highlights


· Increase of 38% in adjusted Group operating profit2 to £24.1 million

· Year end order book increased to £2.5 billion, in excess of 90% from repeat orders (2010: £2.4 billion)

· £140 million year-end net cash balance, no significant debt

· Banking and bonding facilities increased to £465 million and extended to September 2015

· Two successful acquisitions completed in 2011, broadening the range of services provided by the Group

· Support services activities now represent 25% of work secured for 2012


· Recommended 8% increase in dividend for the year: 5th successive year of increase

· On course to achieve ambition to double profits in the medium-term