ACTA.L Regulatory News (ACTA)

7 Nov 2008 07:00



07 November 2008 

Acta S.p.A. 

Second Stage Development Contract Confirmation

Acta S.p.A. ("Acta" or the "Company"), the AIM-listed catalyst developer, is delighted to announced the continuation of its development contract with a major Asian manufacturer and Sumitomo Corporation, into the second stage of the programme.

This confirmation follows the successful completion of the first phase of the project, in which all technical milestones and deadlines were met. Acta is encouraged that, despite a reduction in research and development expenditure by the customer, as previously announced, the programme has continued into the second stage. The Company believes that this continuation represents a strong validation of the commercial potential of Acta's advanced catalyst technologies.

The second stage of the contract will commence immediately, and is scheduled to deliver revenues of approximately €500,000 over the next four months, in line with the Company's expectations. The scope of work encompasses detailed characterisation of Acta's unique catalyst technology, and the parties believe that the work being undertaken will benefit Acta's products across several key applications.

As announced at the time of the interim results, Acta will continue to focus its development efforts on near-term revenue opportunities with major industrial partners, and to reduce non-core costs where possible. These cost reductions are not expected to impact the Company's operational capability, and the continuation of the development programme will be managed from within the Company's current technical resources.

Paolo Bert, Chief Executive, commented: 

"We are very pleased to confirm the continuation of our development contract with one of the world's leading manufacturers and our partners, Sumitomo Corporation. This confirmation comes despite an economic downturn which has reduced investment programmes, and underpins our confidence in the core value of our technologies. The commercial relationship between the parties and their commitment to this development programme remains strong."

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Notes to Editors

About Acta 

Acta develops and manufactures unique patented catalysts which have been launched to the renewable energy, automotive, battery and industrial markets. Acta is also developing other commercial opportunities using its catalysts for industrial waste treatment.

Acta's catalysts and alkaline system know-how are at the heart of the Company's development of a new, high pressure water electrolyser technology which has demonstrated low cost, platinum free, high pressure hydrogen generation. Combined with a platinum free fuel cell, the system offers a solution to the problem of how to store surplus energy produced from large scale, intermittent renewable energy sources (eg wind farms).

Acta's catalysts are also undergoing customer tests in applications such as ammonia treatment (removal of ammonia from an industrial waste stream), and zinc-air batteries (a high performance and environmentally friendly battery technology), as well as fuel cell and other applications.

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