Augean’s high margins and earnings growth offer attractive returns for equity holders in an uncertain macroeconomic environment. Bolstered by the accretive Colt acquisition and benefiting from new contract wins, we increase our FY17 group EBITDA forecast for Augean by 16%. Given its specialist service offering, Augean is highly profitable and typically carries a low level of debt, so continually has to weigh capital allocation versus shareholder returns. We were therefore pleased that management paid a very sensible EV/EBITDA multiple of 6.6x for Colt, a Hull-based specialist waste services provider.
