LONDON (Alliance News) - Clean Air Power Ltd saw its shares slide Thursday morning, even though it said its sharply-reduced 2014 revenue had come in slightly above market expectations and key partner Ricardo Inc had re-affirmed its commitment to the co-operation agreement that the companies have.
In a trading update, the developer of compression-ignited natural gas engine management software for heavy duty vehicles said 2014 revenue was GBP6.8 million, beating what it said were market expectations for GBP6.6 million. However, the 2014 revenue is well below the GBP9.93 million it reported in 2013, when sales growth of its dual-fuel systems in Europe lifted revenue by a quarter compared with 2012.
It added that its net cash position at the end of 2014 was GBP2.1 million, while its underlying position excluding payments that it had budgeted for in January 2015 but received a month earlier, was GBP1.4 million, ahead of expectations for GBP1.0 million.
"Actions taken to control costs and tight management of cash resources has resulted in our cash position being stronger than anticipated thus providing additional headroom for the company to continue to deliver on its strategy to transition the business to a design, development and delivery partner to OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers," Chief Executive John Pettitt said in a statement.
In a separate statement, Clean Air Power said it welcomed Ricardo's publication of a fourth-quarter review, which highlighted the benefits of dual-fuel technology and re-affirmed Ricardo's commitment to the co-operation agreement signed with Clean Air Power in September 2013 for the development and application of Clean Air Power's MicroPilot technology.
Clean Air Power said it is currently collaborating with Ricardo on the first phase of a production development program for a MicroPilot diesel-natural gas engine for the South East Asian and other markets under a contract with an unnamed global truck manufacturer. The programme will generate revenues of over USD3million up to April 2015 and, if successful, will move to a second phase targeting the start of production in 2017, the company said.
Clean Air Power shares were down 6.7% at 2.10 pence Thursday morning.
By Steve McGrath; stevemcgrath@alliancenews.com; @stevemcgrath1
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