25th Mar 2015 09:54
LONDON (Alliance News) - Xcite Energy Ltd Wednesday said it swung to a pretax loss in 2014, after income in 2013 wasn't repeated and it recorded a significant foreign exchange loss on senior secured bonds.
The heavy oil appraisal and development company currently focused on the UK North Sea said it swung to a GBP5.0 million pretax loss in 2014 from a GBP9.5 million profit in 2013 as its income evaporated and it recorded a significant foreign exchange loss on senior secured bonds.
In 2013, the company made GBP11.4 million in income from a non-exclusive, binding sale and purchase agreement for technical data in respect of the Bentley field in the UK North Sea, but this was not repeated in 2014. The company does not currently generate any other revenue.
It did record a GBP3.5 million gain on foreign exchange in 2014 from a GBP496,732 loss a year earlier, offset by a GBP6.8 million foreign exchange loss on senior secured bonds issued in June 2014, from nil a year earlier.
"Following a strengthening of the dollar relative to the pound in the period of issuance of the bonds to the year end, the income statement is showing an unrealised foreign exchange loss in respect of the revaluation of the bond liability as at December 31, 2014, of GBP6.8 million," it said.
At the end of December, Xcite reported a cash balance of GBP32.5 million.
"Despite yet another challenging year across the oil industry, we have continued to make significant progress with the Bentley development project in those areas within our control. We believe that this work supports our commercial discussions with the contractor group and ongoing funding discussions with potential co-venturer partners. Our focus remains on delivering the financing required to bring the Bentley field into production," said Chief Executive Rupert Cole.
Xcite shares were down 6.3% to 27.40 pence per share on Wednesday morning.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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