The trial before the Supreme Court of the State of New York related to equipment and technologies supplied by Whitefox for use in Tate's U.S. ethanol plants at Loudon in Tennessee and Fort Dodge in Iowa which Tate claimed were not fit for purpose.

"We are very surprised and disappointed at this verdict and we will be pursuing an appeal. We have done absolutely nothing wrong and we have complete faith in our technology which is being used successfully by our customers," Whitefox's chief executive Gillian Harrison said in a statement on Wednesday.

No comment was made by Tate on the level of the award granted to Tate, although analyst Graham Jones at brokers Panmure Gordon estimated that the award is in the order of a low double-digit millions of pounds figure.

Tate's shares were off 2 percent at 633 pence at 0840 GMT in a slightly firmer London market.

($1=0.6411 British pounds)

(Reporting by David Jones; Editing by Greg Mahlich)

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