(Alliance News) - Velocys PLC on Wednesday said its loss narrowed in the first half of 2019 due to a considerable drop in administrative expenses.
Shares in Velocys were down 8.4% at 2.48 pence in London in afternoon trade.
The sustainable fuels technology company posted a GBP4.6 million pretax loss for the six months ended June 30, a fraction of its GBP25.0 million loss the year before.
This change was almost entirely due to administrative expenses, which were slashed to GBP4.6 million from GBP25.5 million. Chief Executive Henrik Wareborn put this down to "reduced spending on overhead, consulting costs and the development of the Mississippi Biorefinery project".
Revenue however also dropped sharply, to GBP22,000 from GBP292,000.
Velocys said the revised renewable-focused profile of its Bayou Fuels Mississippi project is helping with discussions between the company and its partners and investors as the project moved towards the next development stage.
Further, the company is advancing its Immingam UK project with Shell and British Airways toward a 2021 financial close.
In addition, the firm is in the process of delivering the last of the reactors to its Red Rock Biofuels client.
Wareborn said: "2019 has been a positive year for the company. The demand for our Fischer Tropsch technology is growing on both sides of the Atlantic, which is why we have concentrated our efforts on project development and reactor manufacturing. These last six months have seen Velocys accelerate the move from concept to commercialisation - transitioning from research, development and testing, to focusing on commercial scale client delivery and operational excellence.
"We have delivered our first reactor and all catalyst charges to our client in Oregon (Red Rock Biofuels) and the manufacturing of the remaining reactors is advancing. We are now focusing all our efforts on commercial delivery - for our client in Oregon and for our two projects in Mississippi, USA (Bayou Fuels) and Immingham, UK (Altalto)."