Immediate Release Friday 7th February 1997

Costain is expected to indicate the outcome of the attempted sale of its US Coal subsidary to Rencoal Inc by February 8th 1997. The conditional sale was agreed by shareholders at Costains EGM of 26th December 1996. Further financing, which is critical to Costains survival is dependent upon the sucessful sale of US Coal. Todate, Costain's management has made no announcement as the completion of the sale. The Costain Independent Shareholders Association is expressing concern after speculation that Costains was saved from administration when the provisional US coal sale was drawn up in December last year[sournce: Construction News].

The sale of US coal to Rencoal is expected to realise immediately only £17.7 million of the £28.6 million asking price. However futher financing from Intria and a quater of the £28.6 million asking price