Augean sells East Kent incinerator facility for £3.35m

AIM-listed waste management business Augean has sold its loss-making East Kent high temperature incinerator to existing customer Wastecare Limited for £3.35m in cash.

Wastecare will fork out £1m immediately, with the remaining £2.35m due within three months.

The company announced back in December that it was planning to mothball the incinerator and looking for a buyer. Augean said at the time that it had invested almost £1m a year on the facility, which has consistently under-performed the returns required by the group.

The profit on sale will be £2.5m and the sale will avoid the planned costs of closure estimated at around £0.6m. The profit on sale will be treated as an exceptional item.

At 1540 GMT, the shares were up 4.3% to 72.49p.