RE: RNS28 Sep 2023 07:05
Ian Pearson, Chairman of EQTEC, commented:
"The Board is committed to the Company's business strategy and its leadership as it negotiates a difficult transition out of EQTEC's project development past into its future business model as a leading technology innovation business. To add momentum behind execution of its strategy, the Company requires the sort of funding that only one or more strategic investors can bring. It is imperative that we respond to the AIM market's valuation of the Company by finding investors of scale that understand and believe in EQTEC's direction and full potential."
David Palumbo, CEO of EQTEC, commented:
"We remain committed to transitioning EQTEC from a broad-based project developer, exposed to a wide range of commercial and delivery risks, into a technology licensor and innovator focused on what we do best. We forecast that 2023 would be a pivotal year in that transition, and now we can begin to see its impact: an increasing number of pre-funded projects held by larger, better funded clients and co-delivered with a more reliable cadre of partners. At the same time, and even after avoiding €18 million in costs last year, we are having to make hard choices about making good on completion of legacy projects or leaving them behind. Either way, the impact of managing through the legacy work is painful in financial terms, as our revenue and profit figures indicate. But it is also temporary. The engineering work we are undertaking now on the renewed portfolio will gradually convert to equipment sales and paid fees for engineering, licensing & maintenance support. As we strictly qualify, select and contract new work, we expect increasingly smooth revenues across a busy portfolio of client-led projects. The second half of 2023 is focused on steady progression of our transition, including further clean-up of legacy challenges and growing the depth and breadth of our engagement with leading partners investing and building new energy infrastructure in Europe and beyond."