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60-937: For the British construction and civil engineering company, see Costain Group . Costain is a surname of English, Scottish and Manx origin . When originating in Scotland and northern Ireland the surname is an Anglicisation of the Gaelic Mac Austain , meaning "son of Austin ". The English surname is a reduced form of Constant or Constantine . People named Costain [ edit ] Danny Costain , American politician Molly Costain Haycraft (1911-2005), Canadian, author Albert Costain (1910—1987), British, politician Richard Costain (1839–1902), British founder of

120-656: A 15% stake in the group. The rights issue was concluded in late May 2020, with ASGC becoming Costain's biggest shareholder. In September 2024, ASGC sold its shareholding in Costain to institutional investors for £38m. In March 2023, Costain announced - after three consecutive years of pre-tax losses - that its results for 2022 showed a pre-tax profit of £34.2m on revenue up 25% at £1,421m (2021: £1,135m). Costain's activities are organised into two operating divisions: Natural Resources (water, nuclear process and oil & gas) and Infrastructure (highways, rail and power). Costain

180-790: A 7.2% level (it was reached in October 1999). For instance, in Montreal ( Quebec ) unemployment affected 16.7% of the active population by December 1992 while the number of households relying on welfare increased from 88,000 to 102,000 between April 1990 and December 1992. The early 1990s recession was notable for being substantially more negative for employment in Ontario than the early 1980s recession; Ontario's percentage of total age 15-64 population employed began to decline early in 1989 and only began to grow again early in 1994, five years of decline with an 8.2 percentage point drop. By contrast, in

240-413: A court ruling increasing Costain's liabilities on a Welsh road project caused the firm to cut its full year profit forecasts; its share price fell 19% in early trading. On 11 March 2020, Costain announced a £100m rights issue, aiming to strengthen its balance sheet after it suffered a £6.6m pre tax loss on revenues of £1.16 billion in 2019; the news sent Costain shares down 34%, with the plunge continuing

300-428: A decade. During the 1980s, Costain invested its resources into coal mining, international housing and commercial property; however, both the housing and property markets, and thus the business, were heavily impacted by the early 1990s recession , which led to sell-offs and cutbacks, especially housebuilding, which reoriented Costain towards the construction sector. Despite the company's fiscal difficulties, it (as part of

360-525: A dramatic low point in April 1995, the demise of Costain was incorrectly predicted by numerous British broadsheets . It was claimed that the company could not be expected to survive as an operating company by the end of the century. In 1995, Alan Lovell was appointed chief executive of Costain; the actions taken during his two year tenure, which included the sale of the company's property interests in London and

420-690: A landslide to the National Party , who continued with Douglas' reforms. François Mitterrand was elected to a second term on 8 May 1988 and his political party, the Socialist Party , and its allies won a very narrow majority in the National Assembly the next month. Weakened by the recession and corruption scandals, the Socialist Party suffered severe defeats in the 1992 local elections ( regional and cantonal ) and

480-615: A move that was condemned as a "PR stunt" by the GMB union , and described by the Scottish Affairs Select Committee as "an act of bad faith". In December 2017, trade union Unite announced it had issued High Court proceedings against twelve major contractors, including Costain. In April 2019, Costain was suspended from the UK Government's Prompt Payment Code , for failing to pay suppliers on time. It

540-434: A problem. France, just as the rest of continental Europe, entered recession later compared to economies of anglophone countries. The economic climate started to worsen in late 1989 (first in industry) in several phases: The recession officially starts at the end of 1992 and beginning of the 1993. It is a brief but important recession: GDP drops 0.5% in the last quarter of 1992 and 0.9% in the first quarter of 1993. The drop

600-527: A subject of controversy. It used to be a subscriber to the United Kingdom's Consulting Association , which was an illegal construction industry blacklist ; legal action was taken against the company in this matter during the 2010s. In 2019, Costain was suspended from the UK Government's Prompt Payment Code after failing to pay suppliers on time. The business was founded in 1865 when Richard Costain and his future brother-in-law, Richard Kneen, left

660-497: A year or longer. The early 1990s recession in Canada is classified as a Category 4 recession, the same category as the early 1980s recession. Notably, the early 1990s recession did not have as deep a contraction as the early 1980s recession, but was of longer duration as it had four years of less than 2.3% growth in real GDP (1989–92), while the early 1980s recession only had two years of less than 2.3% growth (1980 and 1982), and only

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720-420: Is also affected by the recession with a 3.9% decrease in volume of output. All the composants of GDP were depressed in 1993: The weak economic climate resulted in significant increase in unemployment and public deficits. Reduced activity levels had a direct impact on public finances: social benefits grew 6.8% in 1993 whereas tax revenues only increased 2.4% despite increases in tax rates and charges throughout

780-560: Is also involved in HS2 lots S1 and S2, working as part of joint venture, due to complete in 2031. Costain was revealed as a subscriber to the United Kingdom's Consulting Association , exposed in 2009 for operating an illegal construction industry blacklist . Subsequently, it was also one of the eight businesses that were involved in the launch in 2013 of the Construction Workers Compensation Scheme ,

840-422: Is amplified by weak exports figures as most of France's trading partners also entered recession at the end of 1992. On a yearly basis, GDP growth was limited to 1.5% in 1992 and –0.9% in 1993, the first negative figure since 1975. Industry is vastly affected by the recession: output dropped 5.3% in volume in 1993 with a catastrophic first semester and a very limited recovery in the second. The construction industry

900-515: The 1993 legislative elections (winning only 53 seats out of 577, its worst turnout until 2017) where the RPR - UDF right-wing coalition were returned to power with a massive majority of 449 seats out of 577. In the United States during the recession more people chose to shop at discount stores . This caused Kmart and Walmart (which became the country's largest retailer in 1989) to outsell

960-577: The Croydon area were developed in the middle of the 1920s. In 1929, William died: the other two brothers remained in Liverpool and William’s son, Richard Rylandes Costain, was sent to run the London company. Under him, Richard Costain & Sons expanded its housing building large estates all around London, the largest being a site for 7,500 homes in South Hornchurch , started in 1934. Perhaps

1020-587: The Isle of Man and moved to Liverpool as jobbing builders. Their partnership lasted until 1888, at which point Richard Kneen left and Richard Costain's three sons (Richard, William and John) joined him. Costain gradually expanded through Lancashire ; by the outbreak of the First World War , it was building its presence in South Wales, where it built numerous houses for munitions workers. Following

1080-660: The Trans-Iranian Railway . During the Second World War , Costain helped build several Royal Ordnance Factories , airfields, and worked on the Mulberry harbour units. By the start of the 1970s, Costain was building around 1,000 houses per year. During this decade, it benefitted greatly from a construction boom in the Middle East ; profits increased from little more than £1m per year to £47m within

1140-605: The TransManche Link consortium) completed construction of the Channel Tunnel , which was at the time the most expensive construction project ever proposed at a final cost amounted to £9 billion (equivalent to £22.6 billion in 2023). Into the 21st century, it has worked on numerous complex civil engineering and commercial construction projects and has been involved in various Private Finance Initiative (PFI) schemes. Costain's operations have occasionally been

1200-403: The savings and loan crisis and a slump in office construction resulting from overbuilding during the 1980s. The US economy returned to 1980s level growth by 1993 and global GDP growth by 1994. Canada's economy is considered to have been in recession for two full years in the early 1990s, specifically from April 1990 to April 1992. Canada's recession began about four months before that of

1260-490: The 1980s, in particular removal of bank borrowing controls and liberation of foreign borrowing, combined with strong currency and a fixed exchange rate policy led to a foreign debt financed boom. Bank borrowing increased at its peak over 100% a year and asset prices skyrocketed. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 led to a 70% drop in trade with Russia and eventually Finland was forced to devaluate , which increased

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1320-542: The 1991 introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). He resigned as prime minister and party leader in 1993, and the Progressive Conservatives collapsed in the election held later that year , winning only two seats. In Australia, Paul Keating (then Treasurer of Australia , and future Prime Minister) referred to it as "the recession that Australia had to have". This quote became a cornerstone of

1380-671: The 1991 second quarter expansion was likely the result of pent up demand from the Gulf War and the introduction of the federal Goods and Services Tax early in the year severely suppressing consumer spending in the first quarter. Overall real GDP growth for Canada was 2.3% for 1989, 0.16% for 1990, -2.09% for 1991, 0.90% for 1992, before increasing to 2.66% in 1993. The unemployment rate rose from 7.5% in 1989, to 10.3% in 1990, 10.3% in 1991, 11.2% in 1992, and 11.4% in 1993 before dropping to 10.3% in 1994. In fact, due to unemployment remaining at higher levels until early 1994, some sources assert

1440-514: The 4% range between 1984 and 1988, but began to rise again in 1989, averaging 5.0% that year. Gordon Thiesen, asserted in 2001 when he was the Bank of Canada governor, that inflationary pressures in Canada were partly fueled by Canadians having had a greater "inflation psychology" than Americans, that is a higher propensity to spend now in the belief the price for the same product will be substantially higher in short period of time. To reduce inflation,

1500-659: The Bank of Canada and the Department of Finance announced their monetary policy would be governed by formal inflation targets, with a target of 3% for 1992. Inflation was contained to 4.8% in 1990, 5.6% in 1991 and then decreased to 1.5% in 1992 and 1.9 in 1993, well below the target of 3%. This suggests the Bank of Canada's restrictive monetary policy overshot its target, suppressing GDP and employment growth in 1992 and 1993 in what would normally have been an economic recovery period. In fact, complex macro-economic modelling undertaken estimates that "excessive monetary restraint" of

1560-527: The Bank of Canada raised its prime rate from 10% in 1986 and 1987, to 12.25% at the start of 1989, peaking at 14.75% in June 1990, thereby prompting Canadians to reduce spending, reduce borrowing and begin saving sooner and more greatly than Americans. Particularly hard hit were Canada's real estate markets, the building industry, especially factory construction, and consumer confidence. Then in February 1991,

1620-509: The Bank of Canada reduced real GDP growth by 1.5 percentage points in 1990, 2.9 percentage points in 1991 and 4.0 percentage points in 1993. Another cause of Canada's recession were several tax increases instituted by the federal government between 1989 and 1991. These increases related to sales, excise and payroll taxes were modelled to have reduced real GDP growth by 1.6, 2.4 and 5.1 percentage points, respectively, in 1990, 1991 and 1992, although if these tax increases had not been implemented

1680-524: The Costain construction business Thomas B. Costain , (1885-1965), Canadian, journalist, author References [ edit ] ^ "Costain Name Meaning and History" . Ancestry.com . Retrieved 23 December 2008 . [REDACTED] Surname list This page lists people with the surname Costain . If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding

1740-576: The First World War, Costain began to develop housing estates in Liverpool on its own account, primarily to offer continuity of employment to its workforce. With housing sites in Liverpool in short supply, Richard Costain sent his son William down to London to find new sites. He purchased the Walton Heath Land Company, and in 1923, the separate business of Richard Costain & Sons was formed. Several executive estates in

1800-470: The US, and was deeper, likely because of higher inflationary pressures in Canada, which prompted the Bank of Canada to raise interest rates to levels 5 to 6 percentage points higher than the corresponding rates in the US by early 1990. Canada's economy began to weaken in the second quarter of 1989 as sharp cutbacks in manufacturing output reduced real GDP growth to about 0.3% for each of the last three quarters of

1860-545: The US, was the high value of the Canadian dollar, as high as 86-cents American in 1991, which made Canada's export manufactured goods, such as automotive parts, textiles and intermediate industrial goods and materials, uncompetitive in international markets. Combined with Canada's manufacturing productivity at the time being among the lowest in the G7 (caused by a lack of investment in new equipment or in research and development) and

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1920-553: The acceptance of a £73m refinancing arrangement that gave the Malaysian building group Intria a 40 percent stake in the business, have been credited with having saved Costain. On two occasions in 1996, the company had its shares suspended . During 1999, Brewer Gold Mine, an American subsidiary of Costain, abandoned a gold mine in South Carolina , which had been closed, and ceased performing its remediation duties. In

1980-487: The beginning of the 1970s. The substantially increased revenues that accrued to the oil producing states led to a construction boom in the Middle East during the 1970s. Costain was a major beneficiary, particularly in the Emirates , and within a decade profits increased from little more than £1m a year to £47m. In the 1960s, A. P. Costain became chairman, with Sir Robert Taylor as chief executive. During 1985, Costain

2040-590: The best known development of all was Dolphin Square , which was completed in 1937. During 1933, Richard Costain (the London-based business) was floated on the London Stock Exchange ; the Liverpool business was not part of the flotation. By then, Costain had completed over 4,000 houses in the London area, some at prices up to £4,000. Costain continued to expand its private housebuilding and it

2100-604: The company was on Heath Drive in Tadworth in Surrey, when Arthur Costain was the chairman. Throughout the Second World War , Costain undertook extensive military work, including the construction of Royal Ordnance Factories and airfields. One particular highlight of its wartime activities was serving as one of the contractors who built the Mulberry harbour units. Sir Richard Rylandes Costain CBE (20 November 1902 - 26 March 1966)

2160-438: The early 1980s Ontario's employment percentage decline was shorter than Canada's as a whole and only had a 4.4 percentage point contraction. C.D, Howe Institute's Business Cycle Council classifies Canada's recession according to their severity, with Category 4 recessions being the second highest after Category 5, which is a depression. It defines Category 4 recessions as having substantial declines in real GDP and employment for

2220-714: The early 1990s recession actually saw a decrease in GDP per capita, that being by $ 29 in 1991. Both recessions had high unemployment after the recessionary period had officially ended with unemployment rates of 12% and 11.4%, in 1983 and 1993, respectively. Other sources describe the early 1990s recession as "the deepest in Canada since the Great Depression of the 1930s" naming it "the Great Canadian Slump of 1990–92." Finland underwent severe economic depression in 1990–93. Badly managed financial deregulation of

2280-483: The early 1990s recession lasted until February 1994 in Canada, as the percentage of the working age population (15-64) being employed continued to decline until the following month. The slow growth in employment following the end of the GDP contraction in April 1992 right through until 1995, is referred to as a "jobless recovery". A key cause of the recession in Canada was inflation and Bank of Canada's resulting monetary policy. The inflation rate in Canada had remained in

2340-606: The early years of the 21st century, Costain worked on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link , which included the modernisation of London St Pancras station to accept Eurostar trains, and on the Thameslink , and Crossrail projects in central London; on Crossrail, Costain's contracts included the Paddington and Bond Street stations (both with Skanska ), and the north east network upgrade. In 2010, Costain

2400-548: The economy to health. Bush initially enjoyed great popularity after the successful Persian Gulf War , but this soon wore off as the recession worsened; his 1992 re-election bid was particularly hampered by his 1990 decision to renege on his " Read my lips: no new taxes " pledge made during his first campaign in 1988. Meanwhile, Mulroney became deeply unpopular in Canada after two failed constitutional reform attempts (the Meech Lake Accord and Charlottetown Accord ) and

2460-504: The end of the 1980s led to high gearing just as international markets were turning down; this circumstance was exacerbated by a disastrous explosion which killed ten people in 1989 at a Costain owned coal mine in the United States, for which the firm was fined $ 3.75m in February 1993. As a consequence of the early 1990s recession , the company incurred substantial losses that not only rapidly depleted its reserves but also compelled

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2520-425: The federal government's national debt would have increased a significant amount. A third, less important factor in Canada's recession was the weakness of the US economy at the time, which was calculated to have had the effect of reducing Canada's economic growth by .6, 2.2 and 1.1 percentage points in 1990, 1991 and 1992. An additional reason for the recession, especially it being deeper and longer in Canada than in

2580-550: The following day, dropping below £1 to 88p. The company was also affected by the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown with major projects (amounting to a third of operating revenue) suspended. As a result, the board and senior leadership team agreed a 30% reduction in salaries and fees for up to three months, while also making other short term economies. Two months later, Dubai -based contractor ASGC Construction stated that it planned to invest £25m in Costain's £100m rights issue, giving it

2640-617: The opposition Liberal Party 's campaign during the 1993 election , designed to underscore alleged mismanagement of the national economy by the incumbent Labor Party . Unlike the opposition parties in North America, however, the Liberal Party failed to enter government (at least, not until the 1996 election ) In neighbouring New Zealand , the recession came after the re-election of the reformist Lange Labour government. The impact of economic reforms (known as Rogernomics ) in

2700-583: The person's given name (s) to the link. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Costain&oldid=1215424481 " Category : Surnames Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata All set index articles Costain Group Costain Group plc is a British construction and engineering company headquartered in Maidenhead , England. It

2760-854: The private sector's foreign currency denominated debt burden. At the same time authorities tightened bank supervision and prudential regulation, lending dropped by 25% and asset prices halved. Combined with raising savings rate and worldwide economic troubles, this led to a sharp drop of aggregate demand and a wave of bankruptcies. Credit losses mounted and a banking crisis inevitability followed. The number of companies went down by 15%, real GDP contracted about 14% and unemployment rose from 3% to nearly 20% in four years. Recovery has been based on exports, after currency devaluation of 40% and reviving world economy share of exports as percentage of GDP has risen from 20% to 45%, and Finland has been running consistent current account surpluses. Despite this impressive performance and strong growth mass unemployment has remained

2820-448: The property asset bubble. The decade following is known as The Lost Decade . The Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney in Canada and the successful presidential election campaign of George H. W. Bush in the United States may have been aided by growth in 1988. However, neither leader could hold on to power through the last part of the recession, being challenged by political opponents running on pledges to restore

2880-527: The recession led to deep policy divisions between the Prime Minister, David Lange , and the Minister of Finance, Roger Douglas . In response to the recession, Douglas wanted to increase the pace of reform, whereas Lange sought to prevent further reform. Douglas resigned from Cabinet in 1988, but was re-appointed to Cabinet in 1989, prompting Lange to resign. Labour lost the 1990 general elections by

2940-585: The removal of certain protective tariffs through the 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement, this caused substantial job losses in the manufacturing sector with a significant number of manufacturers closing down or moving to the US, Mexico or the Caribbean. The recession severely depressed job markets throughout the country unemployment rising from a low of 7.2% in October 1989, to a high of 12.1% in November 1992; it would take 10 years before unemployment recovered

3000-457: The replacement of long-serving Margaret Thatcher with John Major as prime minister in November 1990 helped fend off a strong challenge from Neil Kinnock and Labour . Japan had loose monetary policy in the decades preceding, causing the Japanese asset price bubble . The Bank of Japan raised interest rates to cause an inverted yield curve and reduced M2 money supply increases to tame

3060-452: The sale of several key assets along with various cutbacks, particularly in its underperforming housebuilding division, that left Costain as a predominantly construction-oriented business. More fiscal strain came in the form of a combined charge of £160m that was incurred by a pair of rights issues that arose in 1991 and 1993. Nevertheless, some sectors, such as coal mining, continued to provide reliable work for Costain at this time. During

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3120-492: The second quarter of 1991, but then for a full year there was virtually no change in real GDP while employment levels continued to drop as most industries continued to cut output. Only in April 1992 did total employment begin to increase again with real GDP growing 0.4% thereby ending the recession. Technically, the moderate expansion in the second quarter of 1991 would qualify the contractions from April 1990 to March 1991 and July 1991 to April 1992 as two separate recessions, but

3180-663: The year (the Generalized Social Contribution rate was increased by 1.3 points on 1 July 1993). Sweden experienced a financial crisis during the early 1990's. Despite several major economies showing quarterly detraction during 1989, the British economy continued to grow until the third quarter of 1990. Economic growth was not re-established until early 1993, with the end of the recession being officially declared on 26 April that year. The Conservative government which had been in power continuously since 1979 managed to achieve re-election in April 1992 after

3240-471: The year. Despite GDP growth being minimal, employment growth Canada-wide remained moderate throughout 1989 (although Ontario had a decline in employment in 1989) and there was a solid growth spurt (0.8%) in the first quarter of 1990. In April 1990, economic activity and employment both began substantial declines with the largest drops in real GDP, 1.2%, and employment, 1.1%, occurring in the first quarter of 1991. Both real GDP and employment bounced back in

3300-472: Was chairman in the 1950s, the grandson of the founder. In the immediate post-war years, only small estate development was undertaken by the firm; it was not until the acquisition of Nottingham -based Rostance Group in 1962 that private housebuilding resumed on any scale. Further bolstered by the acquisition of the Blackpool firm R Fielding in 1969, Costain was building around 1,000 houses per year by

3360-510: Was described as "one of the largest speculative housebuilders and estate developers in this country before the war." Following the flotation, Costain moved into civil engineering. One such early undertaking in this area was on the Trans-Iranian Railway and then at Abadan, Iran for BP . Losses on the railway, on Beckton sewage works and the costs of Dolphin Square caused financial problems, and Costain had to look for alternative funds when Barclays withdrew its overdraft facilities. By 1939

3420-472: Was established by Richard Costain and Richard Kneen in 1865, initially operating as builders in and around Lancashire . During the early 20th century, Costain expanded geographically, its main activities comprising housebuilding and mining. A separate London-based company was formed in 1923 by the Costain family and was floated on the London Stock Exchange ten years later. Shortly thereafter, Costain moved into civil engineering activities, such as its work on

3480-601: Was named Contractor of the Decade by New Civil Engineer . While led by Andrew Wyllie , the company's CEO from September 2005 to May 2019, Costain invested in technology and consultancy staff, which in March 2018 comprised a third (1,300) of the company's then 4,000 employees. Alex Vaughan succeeded Wyllie as CEO. During June 2019, a gloomy trading update following several delayed and cancelled projects contributed to Costain's share value declining over 35%. In December 2019,

3540-481: Was part of the TransManche Link consortium that constructed the Channel Tunnel , which was at the time the most expensive construction project ever proposed, the final cost amounted to £9 billion (equivalent to £22.6 billion in 2023). During the 1980s, recognising that exceptional Middle East profits could not continue, Costain sought to redeploy its extensive cash balances into coal mining, international housing and commercial property. However, over expansion in

3600-510: Was reinstated in July 2019. Early 1990s recession Primary factors believed to have led to the recession include the following: restrictive monetary policy enacted by central banks , primarily in response to inflation concerns, the loss of consumer and business confidence as a result of the 1990 oil price shock , the end of the Cold War and the subsequent decrease in defense spending,

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