25th Jun 2014 10:46
LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares in Acta SpA dropped 19% Wednesday morning after it cautioned that its revenue for the year may be below current market expectations, after the company under-estimated the sales cycles in the telecoms market.
The company, which makes renewable energy products, said that whilst its remains confident it will see strong revenue growth for the year across its businesses, its experience over the last six months has shown that sales cycles in the telecoms sector are longer and more difficult to determine that it had previously estimated.
As a result, it is adopting a more cautious stance regarding its revenue growth for the rest of the year.
Acta has been selling its Acta Power systems and electrolysers for commercial trials with mobile phone operators, and has undertaken trials in Egypt, Australia, the Philippines and Taiwan.
In Egypt, the company is in negotiations to supply a large number of systems in the region, and said it hopes to conclude negotiations shortly. In Australia the company will be extending trials to a larger scale in the second half of the year, and its distributor is continuing negotiations for further opportunities.
Two mobile phone operators in the Philippines have bought an Acta Power system for evaluation, and after the completion of the first evaluation it is in negotiations for further evaluations. The second evaluation is currently underway.
In Taiwan, M-Field Energy ordered six electrolysers from Acta last October, and a further 15 systems in May 2014. Acta expects further orders during the Autumn.
The company has won orders for its receivable power storage products for trial projects in the UK, Singapore and Thailand. The company said that the systems had performed well in the trials, and results will be disclosed when evaluations are concluded.
Acta's partnership with Heliocentris continues to progress well, it said, as Heliocentris placed an order for ten electolyser stacks. In Taiwan, partner APFCT is implementing a new fuel cell scooter project, which Acta supplied a new electrolyser for in May. It expects to announce further opportunities in the fuel cell car refuelling market during the second half of the year.
"Despite the difficulty in determining the length of sales cycles our increasing traction with clients and the growing pipeline of opportunities that we are currently experiencing demonstrates a clear demand for our solutions," said Chief Executive Paolo Bert in a statement. "We are therefore confident of increasing volume orders and strong revenue growth during this year and beyond as product adoption continues to gather pace."
Still, shares in Acta were trading down 19% at 3.92 pence Wednesday morning, making it the third-biggest decliner in the AIM All-Share index.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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