Bid proves value of rubbish for Augean

Smaller companies
Peter Stiff

As the old saying goes, where there’s muck, there’s brass. It is an adage that followers of Augean may be toasting this morning.
The company, which operates land-fill and treatment plants at 11 sites in the UK, revealed yesterday that it had received a number of approaches, which may or may not lead to an offer for the group at a “significant premium” to its present share price. Augean emphasised that all such discussions were at an early stage.
After the market closed, One Fifty One, an Irish group, confirmed that it had made an approach for Augean and that it already holds 26.89 per cent of its shares. Augean said that it was confident that current-year market expectations would be met. The shares rose more than 38 per cent, or 26p, to 94¼p.