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(Alliance News) - Active Energy Group PLC on Wednesday said its pretax loss narrowed in the first half of the year thanks to revenue from contracts and lower finance costs.
Shares in Active Energy were down 20% at 0.43 pence in London in early afternoon trade.
The biomass-based renewable energy firm's pretax loss from continuing operations came to USD1.8 million for the six months ended June 30, shrinking from USD2.3 million the year before.
The firm reported USD99,830 of revenue from its engineering consultancy services, versus nothing the year before. Moreover, finance costs dropped by half to USD290,387 from USD585,178.
The company's loss for the period after tax, however, widened to USD1.8 million from USD1.6 million. This was the result of a much more substantial income tax credit on continuing operations the year before, with Active Energy's tax credit dropping to a much smaller USD2,946 from USD1.2 million.
During the half-year period, Active Energy acquires a commercial hub in Lumberton, US, in order to develop its forest-to-energy supply chain.
Chief Executive Michael Rowan said: " We have acquired the Lumberton site and have a defined plan for the commercialisation of CoalSwitch contemporaneously with additional products. Our ambition remains for [Active Energy] to become a profitable producer of second-generation biomass fuels, focusing on the pellet market. Our production designs are modular, and we are designing efficient operations that are scalable to increase manufacturing volumes to potential market demands. With first production imminent,the company is looking forward to the future with increasing confidence."
By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com
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