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LONDON (Alliance News) - Iodine exploration and production company Iofina PLC said it saw a narrowed loss as revenue grew and production targets for the first half of 2018 were exceeded.
For the six months to the end of June 30, pretax loss narrowed to USD750,429 from USD2.0 million for the same period a year before, due to a revaluation of derivative liability to a gain of USD806,722 from a loss of USD375,935.
Revenue for the period rose to USD11.3 million from USD9.4 million, due to higher volumes of sales in the period and improved iodine prices.
Production in the first half beat the company's revised internal expectations, totalling 264.1 metric tonnes compared to the target range of 215 to 230 metric tonnes, and up from 235.5 metric tonnes the prior year.
Iofina is expecting production for 2018 to be in the range of 575 to 605 metric tonnes.
"Notably, the successful construction of IO#7 was a major milestone for the group in the first half of the year. We are pleased with the performance of the new IOsorb® plant, which is the group's lowest production cost plant, and we anticipate a strong second half of the year because of this," said President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Becker.
"In addition to the group's increased iodine production, expansion at the group's chemical business is also extremely encouraging. We have increased production capacity of three of our key iodine compounds as well as increasing production of a key non-iodine based product in response to rapidly increasing customer demand," Becker added.
Shares in Iofina were down 4.8% at 14.10 pence on Thursday.
