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LONDON (Alliance News) - Environmental Recycling Technologies PLC Wednesday said it has completed an overhaul of its board, leading to the appointment of Thomas Michael Strafford Rowan as the company's new executive chairman.
The recycling technology company also reported a narrower pretax loss in the first half of 2015 after significantly reducing its finance costs and said it is in talks about acquiring a new business following the recent collapse of a deal.
Rowan succeeds Ken Brooks, who is retiring after 18 years on the board. In addition, Non-Executive Directors Roger Baynham, Jeremy Allen, John Mayfield, Matt Cooper and Ash Patel have resigned from the board with immediate effect.
"As we form new strategic alliances for the company we have evolved to a board structure which is more appropriate for the business. I am delighted to welcome Michael to the board to succeed me as chairman. He has extensive experience and knowledge of capital markets and will be a considerable asset to the board," said outgoing Brooks.
"I would also like to thank Roger Baynham, Jeremy Allen, John Mayfield, Matt Cooper and Ash Patel for their valued contributions to the board," he added.
The company did not release any news concerning the replacement of the non-executives who have left the board.
Rowan is a qualified solicitor and has practised as a solicitor at Linklaters in London, Hong Kong and New York, before moving to Merrill Lynch International, where he was one of the senior members of Equity Capital Markets team for 10 years.
He also held a number of senior roles within the Venture Capital, Mid Cap Broking sectors with Accelera Capital, Numis Securities and Charles Stanley Securities in London and Hong Kong and was most recently Business Development Director at JM Finn & Co.
Rowan is also a current non-executive director of fellow AIM-listed Active Energy PLC.
In a separate statement, the company reported a GBP1.1 million pretax loss in the first six months of 2015, narrowing from the GBP1.6 million loss a year earlier after its finance costs more than halved to GBP494,000 from GBP1.0 million.
The company, which generates very little in revenue, reported lower finance costs mainly due to a large reduction in the amount of finance charges it was paying for short-term loans, which dropped to GBP266,000 from GBP840,000.
The company said although it decided to pull out of a recent acquisition deal, it confirmed it is in talks with the vendors of another business with a view to achieving a similar strategic objective of acquiring a company in a complementary sector.
More importantly, Environmental Recycling has secured a GBP500,000 short-term loan from its prinicpial lender Oxford Capital to cover its overheads for the remainder of 2015. It is currently looking for a longer term solution from which to develop the Company's proprietary recycling technology.
"The company meets its day to day cost base by managing its cash resources and securing appropriate levels of finance to settle its liabilities as they fall due," it said.
"The directors have received written assurance from Oxford Capital, the lenders, that there is no intention to request immediate repayment of the liabilities and that subject to agreement on conversion terms, the lender would accept repayment by way of a debt for equity swap," the company added.
Environmental Recycling shares were down 0.9% to 0.322 pence per share on Wednesday morning.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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