14th Apr 2015 10:01
LONDON (Alliance News) - Fox Marble Holdings PLC Tuesday said its pretax loss slightly narrowed in 2014 as revenue tripled despite a sharp drop in selling prices, and it has a EUR2.0 million order book for 2015 which it thinks will increase revenue substantially.
The Kosovo and south-eastern European marble miner reported a EUR2.3 million pretax loss, compared with a EUR2.6 million loss in 2013, after its finance costs halved to EUR209,230 from EUR400,873 and its revenue rose to EUR149,924 from EUR46,208.
Revenue rose as marble production increased to 14,188 tonnes from only 2,217 tonnes, but Fox Marble said revenue was lower than expected as a substantial amount of the initial 2014 order book was pushed into the first half of 2015 and the substantial increase in production was also hampered by selling prices more than halving to EUR340 per tonne from EUR856 per tonne in 2013.
Production and sales are both expected to rise in 2015 after the company secured a number of offtake agreements, with around 25,000 tonnes of marble expected to be extracted in 2015.
Fox Marble said it entered into a strategic partnership with Marmi E Graniti D'Italia SRL, Banyan Stone Ltd and Zhong Shengdestone Co Ltd in the fourth quarter which compliments the existing Pisani offtake and distribution agreement and Royalstone distribution agreement from 2013.
The Pisani offtake agreements relate to the company's London distribution which currently totals over EUR250,000 whilst the Royalstone distribution agreement relates to its New York distribution.
It has also signed a sales agency agreement with Zhong Shengstone which will see Fox Marble sell a minimum of 10,000 tonnes a year to the company. In an offtake agreement with Banyan Stone, Fox Marble will provide a minimum of EUR1.5 million worth of block marble to the Banyan over the next 18 months, and Fox Marble said it received a EUR250,000 prepayment for the deal in February.
In total, Fox Marble's current order book stands at EUR2.8 million, of which EUR2.0 million is expected to be realised in 2015.
"We expect to see the company winning significant orders for its product as our branding, marketing and sales focus continues to develop. We anticipate revenue climbing as more customers purchase our stone and this momentum will not only increase throughout the year but continue into 2016," said Chief Executive Chris Gilbert.
Still, Fox Marble shares were down 2.1% to 19.33 pence per share on Tuesday morning, having risen strongly on Monday in the run-up to the results. The stock is up 6.3% so far in 2015.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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