Augean : Financial results for year ending 2016

We are pleased to announce its preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2016.

Financial highlights

From continuing operations and excluding exceptional items

• Total revenue increased by 25% to £76.0m
• EBITDA (1) increased by 17% to £14.1m
• Profit before taxation increased 16% to £7.0m
• Net operating cash flows increased by 22% to £13.5m
• Post maintenance cashflow increased 44% to £7.3m
• Adjusted basic earnings per share decreased by 5% to 4.42 pence
• ROCE (2) increased from 11.4% to 11.8%
• Net debt increased by £6.5m to £10.8m (2015: £4.3m)
• Proposed dividend per share of 1.0 pence, an increase of 54% (2015: 0.65 pence)

From continuing operations including exceptional items

• Profit before tax reduced 50% to £1.3m (2015: £2.5m) after exceptional items of £5.7m
• Exceptional items of £5.7m principally include £3.3m noncash impairment of East Kent, £1.2m related to a trade dispute settlement, and £0.8m of Colt acquisition fees.
• Basic earnings per share decreased from 1.60 pence to 0.40 pence

Operational highlights

• Continued strong performance from Energy & Construction, with 48% growth in Air Pollution Control Residue (APCR) volumes
  Improved performance from Industry & Infrastructure across all of the main sites and the Avonmouth turnaround plan successfully implemented. Colt, acquired in May 2016, has had a slower start than anticipated and broke even for the year
• Continued strategic traction at Augean Integrated Services with further success in winning additional Total Waste Management contracts with top tier customers. Although the Group has impaired the East Kent asset during the year it remains a key point of differentiation in the pharmaceutical and high tech market
• Augean North Sea Services has traded strongly in the second half of 2016 with further progress on its diversification objective including the partnership with Forth Ports Limited for the management of waste arising from the decommissioning of offshore equipment at the Port of Dundee ·
• Radioactive Waste Services is in line with expectations but has been impacted by a sharp reduction in volumes from UK nuclear decommissioning as previously reported

Outlook

• Encouraging start to 2017 with a growing sales pipeline
• Continued emphasis on moving Group revenues to long term contracts and frameworks
• Board focused on further improving shareholder returns
• Group trading in line with market expectations for 2017

Commenting on the Results, Dr Stewart Davies, Chief Executive Officer, said:

'2016 saw the Group deliver double digit growth in revenue, operating cash flow and EBITDA. At an operational level, the Group has achieved a number of key strategic goals including securing further contracts with top tier customers and a significant increase in APCR volumes, reaffirming our integrated waste management proposition with our customers.

We have seen good momentum across our portfolio of businesses and remain well positioned to take advantage of opportunities across a broad number of sectors. The Group's cash generation and balance sheet remain robust and the Board remains confident of maintaining its track record of year-on-year increases in profitability in 2017.'

(1) EBITDA means earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation
(2) Return on capital employed is defined as operating profit divided by average capital employed, where capital employed is net assets excluding net debt