LONDON (Alliance News) - Gas storage firm InfraStrata PLC said Wednesday its loss widened in the first half of its financial year due to a substantial increase in expenses.
For the six months ended January 31, InfraStrata's pretax loss came to GBP494,627, up from GBP390,458 the year prior. The company recorded no revenue for the period is it continues to develop its Islandmagee gas storage project in Northern Ireland.
Management and administrative expenses proved the largest contributor to the loss, almost doubling to GBP652,647 from GBP340,458 and eased only by GBP200,000 of finance income. No such finance income was recorded the year before.
In January, the company raised GBP1.5 million via a share placing in order to fund land acquisitions and other matters relating to Islandmagee.
In the second half of its year, InfraStrata awarded a contract to Costain PLC relating to the front-end engineering and design of Islandmagee which is intended to generate around GBP65 million of cost savings.
InfraStrata Interim Chair & Chief Executive John Wood said: "The six-month period covered by this results statement has seen a number of milestones, as detailed below, being completed. More importantly, it has set InfraStrata and the Islandmagee gas storage project on the path to constructing and commercialising the project.
"In addition, we are considering various other projects unrelated to Islandmagee that, in time will make good additions to our portfolio.
Shares in InfraStrata were down 2.4% at 0.79 pence on Wednesday.
