Costain last week announced a distinctly not-so-smart set of results from the self-styled smart infrastructure solutions provider. Shame their top brass weren't on hand to explain the slump into the red to shareholders and why it needed them to stump up £100m in a rights issue. Still, those doubting the strategy can no doubt be reassured by this comment from chief executive Alex Vaughan which accompanied the bad news: "Our Leading Edge strategy aligns our activities to meet our clients' changing needs, supporting a step change in our programme delivery performance and an acceleration in the deployment of our higher margin activities." Perhaps this strategy could be broadened to include speaking in plain English.
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