ACTA.L Regulatory News (ACTA)

5 Sep 2008 16:47



5 September 2008

Acta S.p.A. ("Acta" or the "Company")

Trading Update

Acta, the AIM-listed catalyst developer today provides the following trading update prior to its interim results, due to be announced on 24 September 2008.

Despite the continued political and macro-economic support for the renewable energy and cleantech sectors, and the promising technical and commercial progress that the Company continues to make with its major customers and partners, it has become clear in recent weeks that the deterioration in the global economic situation is leading to a marked short-term reduction in research and development investment by the major corporations with which Acta is engaged.

This reduction has manifested itself in delays to the Company's development contract with Sumitomo and a major Asian manufacturer, as well as cut-backs in the scope of this programme and the reallocation of funds away from long term research. The Board is encouraged that, despite the current environment, the contract is still expected to proceed to the next stage within this year, although it is now expected to be at a lower value in the short to medium term than previously envisaged. This will have a significant impact on Acta's revenues, amounting to an approximate halving in expected revenues in the year to 31 December 2008.

While the drivers behind the need for environmental technologies remain acute, the Directors have determined that the impact of the current economic climate on Acta's customers will, therefore, reduce the value and timing of development contracts available to the Company over the medium term, and that this is likely to delay the commercialisation of Acta's products by one to two years, depending on the technology or application involved. 

The Company remains confident in its long term prospects, and this confidence is underpinned by the encouraging technical and commercial progress that the Company has made during the year to date, as announced in the business update of 17 July 2008. Acta is pursuing a number of promising initiatives, and the Company remains focused on developing commercial products and applications that have significant revenue earning potential over the long term.

Paolo Bert, Chief Executive, commented:

"Despite the revision to our immediate outlook, we are encouraged by the progress of our customer engagement and remain positive of our medium and longer term prospects, which are underpinned by the continued strong drivers for environmental technologies. The Company remains well funded, with sufficient resources to finance our activities until mid-2010. We are also implementing a prudent cost reduction programme to mitigate the reduction in expected revenues, to preserve funds and to focus our resources upon our commercial and technical programmes."

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Notes to Editors

Acta S.p.A.

Acta develops and manufactures unique patented catalysts which have been launched initially to the renewable energy, automotive and portable electronics/battery markets. Acta is also developing other commercial opportunities using its catalysts for waste treatment in the bio-fuel, polymer and other industries.

Acta's catalysts for ammonia decomposition into hydrogen offer the automotive industry access to a practical hydrogen carrier for the first time. The catalysts extract hydrogen from ammonia at room temperature, allowing ammonia, one of the most widely used chemicals in the world, to become a fuel for automotive use, solving the problem of hydrogen storage and transportation.

Acta's catalyst range for alkaline membrane fuel cells allows fuel cell developers to stop using expensive platinum so that fuel cells can be made commercially viable for mass adoption, particularly in automotive and portable electronics applications. Adoption of Acta's HYPERMEC catalysts greatly reduces the cost of fuel cells and additionally allows for the first time the use of a wide range of safe liquid bio-fuels such as ethanol and glycerol.  

Simple passive alkaline membrane fuel cells can act as a high performance and environmentally friendly alternative to lead acid and alkaline batteries at a commercially acceptable price.