LONDON (Alliance News) - Renewable fuels firm Velocys PLC said Wednesday its interim loss deepened amid one-off impairments as the firm continued to make "excellent" progress in delivering on its strategic plan.
For the six months ended June, pretax loss deepened to GBP25.0 million from GBP10.6 million the year prior. This was despite revenue rising to GBP392,000 from GBP234,000 the year prior.
Profit performance was hurt by GBP15.1 million in exceptional costs during the period, up from GBP701,000 a year prior. Of these, GBP14.3 million of the one-off costs were associated with an impairment of loans receivable.
Underlying loss - excluding exceptional costs - remained broadly flat at GBP9.9 million.
"In the first half, Velocys continued to make excellent progress against its renewable fuels strategic plan," Chief Executive Officer David Pummell said. "We continue to drive forward our two main projects to develop biorefineries in the US and UK and implement the supply chain that will deliver our reactors and catalyst to the Red Rock Biofuels facility now under construction."
In the second quarter of 2018, Velocys reported that ENVIA experienced a leak at its ENVIA Oklahoma City plant. It was ascertained that the leak was not connected to the "core" Velocys technology but due to a problem with the "ancillary coolant system".
Due to operational challenges associated with this, ENVIA took the decision to suspended operations at the facility.
"ENVIA successfully delivered Velocys' central objective: the demonstration of its technology at commercial scale," Pummell explained. "The company fully supports the decision by the ENVIA Board to suspend plant operations and review all strategic options."
"We are driven to unlock and deliver great value from renewable fuels for our customers, our partners, our investors, our employees and the communities in which we operate," Pummell continued. "To that end, over the coming months we remain focused on securing strategic investors into our Mississippi project and driving forward our UK waste-to-sustainable jet fuel project with our industrial partners Shell and British Airways."
Shares in Velocys were 4.0% lower at 5.58 pence on Wednesday.