Interim Results

Augean plc ("Augean" or "the Group")

Interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2014

Augean, one of the UK's leading specialist waste management businesses, announces its Interim Results for the six months ended 30 June 2014.

Highlights

Financial highlights

§ Group revenue increased by 7% to £24.9m (2013: £23.4m)

§ Group EBITDA increased by 101% to £4.4m (2013: £2.2m)

§ Adjusted profit before tax increased by 121% to £2.2m (2013: £1.0m); basic earnings per share increased to 1.49p (2013: 0.55p)

§ Net debt increased to £8.9m (H1 2013: £6.0m; H2 2013: £8.5m) after capital and investment activities

§ The ratio of net debt to 12 month rolling EBITDA was 1.1x versus a covenant target of less than 2.5x

§ Return on capital employed, from continuing operations and excluding exceptional items, increased to 10.1%, from 8.3% in the same period in 2013.

Operational highlights

§ Group trading in line with expectations for the full year:

o Further growth in Air Pollution Control Revenue (APCR) volumes through the Energy & Construction division

o Continued growth of Radioactive Waste Services (RWS), with broadening customer base

o Temporary shortfall in contracted business at East Kent impacting profitability of new Augean Integrated Service (AIS) division;

o Excluding East Kent, AIS division becoming established and securing new waste management contracts;

o Strong recovery in Augean North Sea Services (ANSS) following depressed offshore activity in quarter one

o Industry & Infrastructure division trading stabilised following impact of low Q1 volumes

Strategic developments

§ New strategy fully embedded, with focus on securing sustainable market positions

§ Group now operating through five market and customer-orientated divisions

§ Closure of Waste Network division successfully completed and assets disposed of during Q1

§ Acquisition of the site at East Kent Waste Recovery Facility, which is key to the development of the AIS business.

Post period end

§ Richard Laker appointed Group Finance Director on 2 September 2014.

Outlook

§ Strong performance in the Energy & Construction division, anticipated to continue ahead of initial management expectations

§ Radioactive Waste Services division expected to normalise after exceptionally strong first half

§ AIS progress in converting contractual opportunities

§ ANSS recovery from slow first quarter and is in line with expectations

§ Industry & Infrastructure expected to benefit from recovery in drilling activity in second half

§ The Group continues to trade overall in line with management expectations for the full year

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

"The results reflect progress in the delivery of the Group's new strategy, with revenue growth in each of the five divisions. Development of our service-led approach is winning customer support in Radioactive Waste Services, Integrated Services and Augean North Sea Services, underpinning their sales growth plans. Increased market activity has provided opportunities for the Energy & Construction division to strengthen its pipeline, offsetting the slower than expected margin improvements in the Industry & Infrastructure division and the temporary shortfall in contracted business at East Kent.

We have taken advantage of the increased profitability of the Group to make a strategic investment in East Kent freehold. The Group is trading in line with management expectations for the full year. We continue to prioritise potential growth opportunities and look forward to providing shareholders with an update in due course."

There will be a meeting for analysts at 09.30am today at the offices of FTI Consulting, 9th Floor, 200 Aldersgate, Aldersgate Street, London, EC1A 4HD. For further information please call 020 3727 1203.

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1 Adjusted profit before tax is defined as profit before tax excluding losses on asset disposals and exceptional items

2 ROCE is defined as operating profit divided by average capital employed, where capital employed is net assets excluding net financial liabilities

3 Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) is defined as EPS with earnings excluding losses on asset disposal and exceptional items

Strategic Report

Our Strategy

Core strategy

The core revised strategy of the Group was established in March 2014, with a focus on growing shareholder value by building market share and developing sustainable market positions. This includes working with customers to provide solutions whereby Augean delivers specialist services focused on hazardous waste. The three core elements of the strategy are described below.

Develop sustainable market positions

Augean is well positioned in attractive markets, both sectoral and regional, where we have expertise and assets, including treatment technologies that differentiate our service and build entry barriers. Understanding these markets enables us to progressively build the capabilities required to maintain and build our position, often against the background of changing environmental or client requirements. These capabilities require timely investments that are included in the business planning process.

Moving more of the Group's revenues from 'spot' or short term contracts to long-term contracts and frameworks is vital to improving the forward visibility of the order book. Growing the proportion of our revenues that come from service offerings to our hazardous waste customers should drive further profitable revenue growth. During the first half of 2014 we have built new relationships with customers and 90% of our top 20 customers (by sales revenue) are now serviced through contract agreements compared to 42% in the equivalent period in 2013. With these customers representing 54% of total Group sales revenues for the first six months of the year, the transition to a contract-led business model is well underway and is evident in all of our operating divisions.

Grow through client-focused solutions

Working to understand the client's needs, and then developing a solution by leveraging the knowledge of sector experts, has been identified as a fundamentally important new focus for the Group. By combining our hazardous waste management capability with expertise in offering associated support services we can target the critical but non-core needs of clients requiring hazardous waste management.

Selling and delivering one complete Augean capability brings consequent benefits to the client of working with a uniquely capable partner and to the Group of accessing its share of value created through this longer-term, more integrated relationship with customers.

Grow shareholder value

We highlighted in the Annual Report for 2013 that the Group is well-positioned to identify potential corporate investments associated with its key market sectors that would accelerate the strategy and provide clear operational and market synergies. Investments were made during the period under review and included the purchase of the site at the East Kent Waste Recovery Facility. We believe that this site represents an excellent medium term opportunity for the Group, despite short term operational challenges. By owning and operating one of the few commercial high temperature incinerators in the UK and having access to land for the development of new waste management activities, the Group is strengthening its presence in the markets for the management of specialist waste streams requiring a reliable, secure disposal solution.

Operating Review

Performance

Group performance during the first half of the year showed a significant improvement from the equivalent period in 2013. Closure of the Waste Network division, and a subsequent reduction in operating losses and Group overhead costs, was delivered alongside increases in operating profits from the Energy & Construction and Radioactive Waste Services divisions. A targeted programme of investment continued to enhance the asset base of the business.

Adjusted profit before tax (PBT)1 increased to £2.2m in the six months, a 121% increase over the first half of 2013. For continuing operations only, adjusted PBT was £2.4m, 50% ahead of the prior period.

Return on capital employed2, from continuing operations and excluding exceptional items, increased to 10.1%, from 8.3% in the same period in 2013.

The Group operates through five divisions (Energy & Construction, Radioactive Waste Services, Augean Integrated Services, Augean North Sea Services and Industry & Infrastructure). The performance of each of these is reported below.

Energy & Construction

The Energy & Construction division (formerly Land Resources) continued to grow the volumes of air pollution control residues (APCR) from Energy from Waste customers, treated at the East Northants Resource Management Facility (ENRMF) and Port Clarence sites, and the treatment and disposal of hazardous waste volumes during the first six months. External revenues were £7.1m excluding Landfill Tax. In 2013, reported revenues included the benefit of volumes now transferred to the Radioactive Waste Services divisions, but on a comparable basis revenues rose by £0.3m from the prior period.

The division has benefited from an investment programme and total waste volumes into the landfill sites during the period were 151,125 tonnes, an increase of 11,346 tonnes (8%) from 2013, driven by a high volume of dredgings waste received which were offset by lower volumes of low margin non-hazardous waste being disposed. This was consistent with the division's strategy to focus on higher-value hazardous wastes. The average price for pre-treatment and disposal of wastes remained stable at £46.9/tonne (2013: £47.6/tonne) with the mix reflecting the growth of APCR, but also the transfer of radioactive volumes to the Radioactive Waste Services division.

The volume of APCR handled by the division rose by 17% from the first half of 2013, to 36,202 tonnes, using the pre-treatment and disposal facilities at ENRMF and Port Clarence sites. The contribution from APCR sales to the divisional revenues increased by £0.6m, the same increase as seen in the previous period.

The revenue streams available from energy generation and minerals extraction contributed £0.2m to operating profit, performing in line with expectations. A small fall in energy from landfill gas was offset by increased mineral extraction volumes.

The division invested £0.8m of capital in new assets during the period, with £0.5m used to enhance the treatment facilities at Port Clarence, to further enhance capacity for growing volumes of APCR.

The division delivered an operating profit, excluding the impact of exceptional items, of £2.9m. The pipeline of work for the remainder of the year suggests that Management's initial expectations for 2014 are likely to be exceeded.

Radioactive Waste Services

The Radioactive Waste Services division delivered an increase in volumes disposed, when compared with the same period in 2013. A total of 2,453 tonnes was received in the first six months, delivering external revenues of £1.0m excluding Landfill Tax, an increase of £0.4m from 2013. In 2013, these volumes were included in the Land Resources division.

The principal activity of the division is the disposal of low level radioactive waste generated from the UK's nuclear estate. The waste is generated from the decommissioning of redundant nuclear power and research facilities under the control of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and the division bids to dispose of this output through a framework agreement with Low Level Waste Repository Limited. During the six months, the majority of the volume disposed was secured through this route, supplemented with a small volume of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) arising from North Sea oil and gas operators. Pleasingly, volumes were received from a number of new customers, broadening the customer base and opening new routes to market.

The division has undertaken a programme of business development activity during the period, including visits to producers of radioactive waste where the Group's waste management and disposal expertise may be of value. Moving the division up the radioactive waste management supply chain remains a viable proposition, which is under active development.

For the six month period the division delivered an operating profit, excluding the impact of exceptional items, of £0.7m. With the limited visibility of the pipeline of work for the remainder of the year tempering Management's view of the second half of 2014, the original expectation for the full year remains.

Augean Integrated Services

The newly formed Augean Integrated Services (AIS) division grew revenues compared to the same period in 2013 in both waste management activities and waste incineration. Divisional external revenues were £1.8m.

New contracts were secured with high value manufacturing customers requiring a broad waste management service. The division is focused on growing both its range of services and number of customers, including providing waste management at clients' own sites. These activities contributed £1.0m to Group revenues during the six month period (before the deduction of inter-segment transactions).

The facility at East Kent, now managed as part of AIS, demonstrated more stable operational performance following the substantial overhaul of the materials handling system in 2013. The high temperature incinerator was used to provide a secure disposal service for customers with clinical, pharmaceutical and specialist manufactured wastes. Disappointingly the facility experienced delays in securing new contracted waste volumes which were expected to drive improvements in operating profit; this despite an increase in revenues from £0.7m in the first half of 2013 to £1.1m in 2014.

The impact of lower than planned revenue growth caused AIS to be behind its operating profit plan for the first six months. An operating loss, excluding exceptional items, of £0.5m is included in the Group's results for the six months. However, encouraging progress is now being made on converting contractual opportunities for later in the second half of the year.

Augean North Sea Services

Augean North Sea Services (ANSS) suffered a slow start to the year as drilling activity was curtailed in the North Sea by poor weather conditions; specifically the most prolonged period of swell in recent years. This led to limited opportunities for waste management both offshore and onshore. However, the business made a strong recovery during the second quarter, gaining incumbency on new drilling operations and further expanding onshore waste management activities. External revenues for the six month period were £5.8m, an increase of £1.6m over the prior period (2013: £4.2m).

ANSS invested £0.4m during the period in assets, through both maintenance and development capital projects. This included work at the recently acquired site at Black Dog, Aberdeen. The site has facilities for the storage and onward shipment of offshore waste streams, increasing the capacity of the business and allowing other ANSS sites to focus on management of wastes generated by customers onshore.

Having recovered from the slow start the business is trading in line with its plan for the year and continues to pursue development opportunities. The operating profit for the six month period before exceptional items was £0.3m (2013: £0.2m).

Industry & Infrastructure

The Industry & Infrastructure division (formerly Oil & Gas Services) was impacted by the slow-down in production of drill cuttings volumes from North Sea oil and gas operations during the first quarter of the year. The division recovers oil from, and disposes of drill cuttings generated by, offshore exploration activities, volumes of which fell sharply between December 2013 and March 2014. However, performance across the three processing sites operated by the division was sufficient to deliver a year on year improvement in external revenues, at £5.9m (2013: £4.6m).

The division's sites at Avonmouth and Paisley provide a range of waste management services to industrial customers, including the recovery and recycling of oils and solvents and the provision of specialist industrial cleaning services. These sites operate in predominantly regional markets and during the first six months consolidated their market positions whilst focusing on improving the gross margins from their activities. The markets are competitive but the sites successfully secured new work by developing lower cost solutions for their customers, which in turn increased volumes received and the utilisation of the processing assets on site.

Drill cutting volumes improved towards the end of the six months and with consistent performance, delivered through other waste treatment services, the operating loss for the first six months excluding exceptional items improved to £0.5m (2013 loss: £0.6m) and resulted in a break-even position on divisional EBITDA. With an expected recovery in drilling activity during the second half of the year Management remain confident of improved profitability.

Transactions

During the first six months of the year the Group completed two transactions: the sale of its former Waste Network assets and the purchase of the East Kent site.

The sale of Waste Network assets for a total consideration received, net of transaction costs, of £1.1m resulted in a loss on disposal of £0.1m being recorded in the Group's income statement for the period as the sale proceeds were slightly lower than the value recorded in the Group's balance sheet at the end of the previous financial year. In addition, the Waste Network sites continued to trade during the period from January to March 2014, at which point the disposal transactions were completed, leading to a trading loss of £0.1m, which is included as a discontinued operation in the results included in this report.

The Group announced during May 2014 the purchase of the assets and site at the East Kent Waste Recovery Facility for a total consideration of £1.9m, payable over three financial years to January 2016 with £1.5m paid in the current period. The transaction included a high temperature incinerator (HTI), one of only four similar HTIs in the UK, a solvent management plant and secure storage facilities. The purchase also included land around the site which had not previously been made available to the Group. This land represents an opportunity to extend the range of waste management activities at East Kent, in line with relevant planning permissions, and to develop a route for customers to securely dispose of specialist hazardous wastes. In the medium term, the Board believes that East Kent will provide an asset of significant strategic value to the Group, with its key role in the development of AIS. Furthermore, the purchase of the freehold saved annual rental expenses on the remaining eight years of the lease, of £0.3m per annum.

Financial performance

The review of financial performance includes the results from the continuing and discontinued operations of the Group. Where appropriate, these have been combined to indicate the results for the entire business and as such are therefore consistent with Full Year Results for 2013 and the Interim Results for 2013.

Trading

For the combined continuing and discontinued operations, net revenue, excluding landfill tax and inter-segment trading, for the six months ended 30 June 2014 increased by 12% to £21.9m (2013: £19.6m). With the inclusion of landfill tax charged to customers of £3.1m (2013: £3.8m), combined Group revenues rose by 7% to £24.9m (2013: £23.4m). The continuing operations delivered an 18% increase in revenue, to £24.7m (2013: £21.0m).

Operating profit and exceptional items

Operating profit before exceptional items from continuing operations increased to £2.7m (2013: £1.8m). Profit before tax and exceptional items for continuing and discontinued operations increased to £2.2m (2013: £1.0m). For the discontinued operations, an operating loss of £0.1m was recorded.

Exceptional items of £0.2m included legal and professional fees relating to litigation of £0.1m and other costs of £0.1m relating to strategic projects.

Return on capital employed

Return on capital employed1 (ROCE), from continuing operations and excluding exceptional items, was 10.1% (2013: 8.3%).

Finance costs

Total finance charges reflected the payment of interest on bank debt and finance leases, totalling £0.4m (2013: £0.3m).

Jointly controlled entity

There was no trading during the period in the Group's Terramundo joint venture with DEC NV. As a result, Terramundo delivered a minor loss of £7,000 (2013: £10,000), relating to loan interest and depreciation charges. The joint venture parties remain in discussions around the future of the venture.

Taxation

Corporation tax charges for the six months were estimated at £0.4m (2013: £0.3m). No adjustment was made to the Group's deferred tax asset from 31 December 2013. Landfill tax, at the full rate, increased by £8 per tonne to £80 per tonne on 1 April 2014, where it is expected to remain pending further announcements by the UK Government.

Profit for the period

Including exceptional charges, the combined Group made a total profit attributable to equity shareholders of £1.5m (2013: £0.5m), which included a reduction in central overheads of £0.3m. This result was based on the performance of the continuing operations of the Group, which delivered improved year on year trading and an increase in profit from continuing operations to £1.7m (2013: £0.9m).

Dividend

The Board's policy is to pay a single annual dividend following the Annual General Meeting. A payment of £0.3m was paid to shareholders during June 2014 in respect of the year ended 31 December 2013 (2013: £0.2m). Accordingly no interim dividend has been recommended.

Earnings per share (EPS)

For the combined Group, including both continuing and discontinued activities, basic EPS increased by 171% to 1.49p (2013: 0.55p) and diluted EPS, including the impact of share options allocated to management, increased to 1.48p (2013: 0.55p). The number of shares in issue at 30 June 2014 was unchanged at 99,699,414 ordinary shares.

Cash flow

The Group delivered an increase in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to £4.4m (2013: £2.2m) following improvements to trading and the removal of losses from the former Waste Network business. Net cash generated from operations fell to £1.9m (2013: £3.8m), driven by the timing of trade payments and receipts, interest and tax payments, including a VAT payment of £0.4m on the purchase of the East Kent site, which was recovered from HMRC in July 2014.

Net cash used in investing activities reduced to £2.0m (2013: £3.4m), as purchases of property, plant and equipment and the site at East Kent Waste Recovery Park were partially offset by receipts from the disposal of former Waste Network assets. Excluding the purchase of the East Kent site, the Group invested £1.6m during the first half of the year on new capital assets and, of this, £0.6m was invested in maintenance capital and £1.0m was spent on development capital, including facilities for treatment of contaminated soils and APCR at ENRMF and Port Clarence.

Net debt increased to £8.9m at 30 June 2014 (H1 2013: £6.0m; H2 2013: £8.5m), which reflected positive underlying trading offset by investment in new assets and facilities and the timing of working capital payments. The gearing ratio (net debt / shareholders' equity) was unchanged from 31 December 2013 at 18%.

Free cash flow (defined as net cash from operating activities less capital investment, but excluding acquisitions and disposals) was £0.3m for the six month period (2013: £0.7m), impacted by the £0.4m short term VAT outflow for the East Kent purchase, noted above.

Financing

During March 2014, the Group undertook refinancing of its loan facilities with HSBC Bank plc. The Group now has access to £15.0m of loan facilities with HSBC, supplemented by finance leases secured on certain plant, as the sources of financing its activities. The loan facility is subject to covenants on the ratio of net debt to EBITDA and the ratio of net debt costs to earnings before interest and tax (EBIT). These covenants were tested at 30 June 2014 resulting in a net debt / EBITDA ratio of 1.0x (versus a target of less than 2.5x) and an interest cover ratio of 12.5x (versus a target of more than 3.0x). At 30 June 2014, the undrawn loan facilities available to the Group were £6.0m.

Board Appointment

Richard Laker joined the Board as Group Finance Director on 2 September 2014.

Outlook

Performance moved ahead strongly during the first six months of the year, with EBITDA doubling from the prior period. Although the first quarter was impacted by a number of issues, encouraging growth was experienced from the Energy & Construction, Radioactive Waste Services and Augean North Sea Services businesses. This gives the Board confidence in continuing to deliver the strategy announced in March 2014.

The Group continues to trade in line with management expectations for the full year.

Dr Stewart Davies

Chief Executive Officer

23 September 2014

1 Adjusted profit before tax is defined as profit before tax excluding losses on asset disposal and exceptional items

2 ROCE is defined as operating profit divided by average capital employed, where capital employed is net assets excluding net financial liabilities

3 Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) is defined as EPS with earnings excluding losses on asset disposal and exceptional items

Unaudited consolidated statement of comprehensive income

For the six months ended 30 June 2014

Unaudited consolidated statement of financial position

At 30 June 2014

Unaudited consolidated statement of cash flows

For the six months ended 30 June 2014

Unaudited consolidated statement of changes in equity

For the six months ended 30 June 2014

1 Statutory information

The financial information in the interim report does not constitute statutory accounts as defined by Section 434 of the Companies Act 2006 and has not been audited or reviewed.

The financial information relating to the year ended 31 December 2013 is an extract from the latest published financial statements on which the auditor gave an unqualified report that did not contain statements under Section 498 (2) or (3) of the Companies Act 2006 and which have been filed with the Registrar of Companies.

The interim financial statements for the six months ended 30 June 2014 are available from the Company's registered office at 4 Rudgate Court, Walton, Wetherby, West Yorkshire LS23 7BF or from the Group's website at www.augeanplc.com.

2 Accounting policies

The Interim financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the AIM Rules for Companies and on a basis consistent with the accounting policies and methods of computation as published by the Group in its Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2013, which is available on the Group's website.

3 Basis of preparation

The Group has chosen not to adopt IAS 34 'Interim Financial Statements' in preparing these interim financial statements and therefore the Interim financial information is not in full compliance with International Financial Reporting Standards.

4 Operating segments

The Group has six reportable segments, one of which is discontinued, which are the Group's strategic operating divisions. These operating divisions are monitored and strategic decisions are made on the basis of each division's operating performance. The Group's operating divisions provide different services to their customers and are managed separately as they are subject to different risks and returns. The Group's internal organisation and management structure and its system of internal financial reporting are based primarily on these operating divisions. For each of the operating divisions, the Group's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) (the chief operating decision-maker) reviews internal management reports on at least a monthly basis. The following summary describes the operations of each of the Group's reportable segments:

· Energy and Construction (2013: Land Resources): Augean operates three modern hazardous and non-hazardous landfill operating sites based at East Northants Resource Management Facility (ENRMF), Thornhaugh in Northamptonshire and Port Clarence on Teesside, providing waste remediation, treatment and disposal services to its customers. The division includes a site at Cooks Hole in Northamptonshire where minerals are extracted and also generates energy as electricity from closed landfill cells.

· Radioactive Waste Services: Augean provides waste disposal services of low level radioactive wastes and naturally occurring radioactive material produced in the UK.

· Augean Integrated Services (AIS): Augean operates a High Temperature Incinerator at Sandwich, East Kent and a site in Cannock focused on Total Waste Management solutions.

· Augean North Sea Services: Through an 81% owned subsidiary company with Scomi Oiltools (Europe) Limited, Augean provides waste management and waste processing services to offshore oil and gas operators in the North Sea.

· Industry and Infrastructure (2013: Oil & Gas Services): Augean operates three waste processing sites across the UK, with activities focused on the management of oil-contaminated waste. The division also provides specialist industrial cleaning services.

· Waste Network: Augean operated four waste transfer sites across the UK, transporting, recovering, recycling and disposing of hazardous wastes on behalf of its customers. This division no longer exists and the sites operated at Hinckley, Worcester and Rochdale were sold in March 2014. The site at Cannock became part of the AIS operation in January 2014.

Information regarding the results of each reportable segment is included below. Performance is measured based on the segment profit before tax, interest and exceptional items, as included in the internal management reports that are reviewed by the Group's CEO. This profit measure for each operating division is used to measure performance as management believes that such information is the most relevant in evaluating the results of each of the divisions relative to other entities that operate within these sectors.

4 Operating segments (continued)

The segmental results for the six months ended 30 June 2014 were as follows:

Exceptional items totalling £201k comprise £124k relating to strategic projects, £69k of legal expenses relating to litigation as explained in Note 9 and £8k of other items.

4 APCR stands for Air Pollution Control Residues

4 Operating segments (continued)

The segmental results for the six months ended 30 June 2013 were as follows:

All activities above are continuing with the exception of the Waste Networks division and arise solely within the United Kingdom. Inter-segment trading is undertaken on normal commercial terms.

5 Tax

The charge to taxation is based on the estimated effective corporation tax rate for the year as a whole.

The taxation charge for the six month period ended 30 June 2014 has been based on the anticipated full year effective tax rate of 21.0% (six months ended 30 June 2013: 3.6%).

All deferred tax liabilities and assets have arisen on the temporary timing differences between the tax base of relevant assets and their carrying value in the statement of financial position. No change in deferred tax compared to the position at 31 December 2013 has been reflected in these statements.

The tax charge for the period has been allocated between continuing and discontinued operations, as shown above.

6 Earnings per share

6 Earnings per share (continued)

7 Reconciliation of operating profit to cash generated from operations

8 Analysis of changes in net financial liabilities

9 Contingent liabilities

The Group is involved in litigation with the previous owners of HiTech Limited, a business that Augean acquired during 2008. Augean lodged a claim of up to £2.5m against the previous owners, based on breach of warranties contained in the sale and purchase agreement for the HiTech transaction. The defendants lodged a counterclaim relating to non-payment of an earn-out payment of up to £0.7m following the transfer of the business.

The trial commenced on 29 April 2014 and completed on 19 May 2014. The judgment was handed down by the High Court of Justice in London on 12 September 2014.

The claim of Augean against the Defendants was upheld at an amount in the region of £840,000. The counterclaim of the Defendants against Augean was not upheld. The Defendants were ordered to pay a proportion of legal costs of Augean, that proportion currently estimated at an amount in the region of £600,000, subject to assessment if not agreed.

The Defendants were not granted leave to appeal the findings by the court but do still have the option to seek permission to appeal the findings to Her Majesty's Court of Appeal in England.