Costain fails to sell US mines

Costain fails to sell US mines

Costain fell 6p to close at 12.5p after it said it had failed to find a buyer for its US coal mines. It had hoped to raise $170m from the planned disposal. Finance director Alan Lovell said Costain had subsequently written off about £100m from the value of the mining business to give the operations a book value of £50m. Costain said it had been in discussions to find a buyer for the whole business. It expected to make an announcement within weeks.