3rd Mar 2015 11:06
LONDON (Alliance News) - AFC Energy PLC shares fell on Tuesday after it reported a wider pretax loss for its recent financial year on the back of increased costs, as it continues to move towards commercial production which it said is "imminent."
AFC Energy shares dropped by 9.6% to 8.32 pence per share on Tuesday morning.
The developer of alkaline fuel cell technology reported a small rise in revenue to GBP782,236 for the year ended October 31, however its cost of sales surpassed revenue to GBP1.0 million. In 2013, the company reported revenue of GBP759,441 with cost of sales totalling GBP542,924.
All of the company's revenue in the period came from a combination of licence fees and EU grant income, whilst its cost of sales was made up of costs relating to grant funded activity.
This led to the company to report a gross loss of GBP247,224 from a GBP216,517 profit a year earlier.
Administrative costs also rose to GBP5.7 million from GBP4.8 million, which led to an operating loss of GBP5.9 million compared to a GBP4.6 million loss.
AFC Energy reported a loss before tax for the year of GBP5.9 million, wider than the GBP4.5 million loss in 2013. AFC Energy's basic loss per share was 2.42 pence per share compared to a 1.88 pence loss per share.
At the end of the year, the company reported a cash balance of GBP4.9 million.
The company is actively engaged in three EU funded projects, Alkammonia, Laser-Cell and POWER-UP, and AFC Energy said the focus is "increasingly on POWER-UP".
The POWER-UP programme in Germany, will be the "world's first demonstration of an alkaline fuel cell system on a large scale," according to the company. A consortium of companies are being led by AFC Energy to deliver the project under an EUR6.1 million EU grant.
In 2015, AFC Energy is expecting to generate up to 15 kilowatts of power from the programme in July, followed by commercial revenue from KORE, the name of the large fuel cell, in the fourth quarter.
By December, it is expecting to be generating 240 kilowatts of power from the programme.
"The fast-tracking of the delivery of the KORE and POWER-UP is a significant step forward for the company and 2015 is likely to be a pivotal year...With commercial production imminent," said Chief executive Adam Bond.
"Going forward, 2015 will be all about driving our KORE programme forward, where we have announced a series of technical milestones that we expect to achieve and this is covered later," he added.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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