LONDON (Alliance News) - Modern Water PLC Wednesday a reported broadly flat operating loss and revenue figure for the first half of the year, as the strength of sterling almost wiped out revenue gains it made in US dollars.
The company reported an operating loss of GBP2.4 million for the six months to June 30, slightly narrower than the GBP2.5 million loss it reported a year earlier, as revenue stayed flat at GBP1.5 million but the company cut overheads to GBP2.8 million, from GBP2.9 million.
Modern Water makes most of its revenue in US dollars, and so was hit hard by the relative strength of sterling in the first half of the year. Revenue was GBP1.6 million at constant exchange rates, it said.
The maker of water monitoring and membrane products and wastewater technologies said the order book in the monitoring division stood at GBP500,000 at the end of the half, up from just GBP10,000 a year earlier, after it won two supply contract for delivery in the second half of 2014. One of those, a deal to supply a purpose built containerised monitoring system for a power project in the Middle East in the third quarter, was the unit's biggest ever single contract.
"The Membrane Process division continues to focus resource on commercial opportunities for Forward Osmosis. The Al Najdah desalination plant has completed its second year of operations and is now being successfully managed locally," it added.
The company remains debt free and had GBP8.8 million of cash on June 30, down from GBP13.3 million a year earlier.
Modern Water shares were down 5.1% at 27.52 pence Wednesday morning.
By Steve McGrath; stevemcgrath@alliancenews.com; @stevemcgrath1
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