Gaming Realms Regulatory News (GMR)

30 Mar 2007 07:01

Pursuit Dynamics PLC30 March 2007 Embargoed: for release at 0700hrs, 30 March 2007 PURSUIT DYNAMICS PLC ("Pursuit Dynamics" or "the Company") ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING TRADING UPDATE At the Annual General Meeting to be held today, the Chairman of PursuitDynamics, Andrew Quinn, will update shareholders as follows: "The current financial year to 30 September 2007 has begun positively forPursuit Dynamics. At the end of the first six months we have made considerableprogress on all fronts of our business. Results for the first half-year areforecast to be broadly in line with expectations. In addition to a satisfactorytrading performance, we have also strengthened our balance sheet and madeconsiderable commercial and technical advances in a number of areas. Pursuit Processing Equipment (PPE) "PPE is performing well and accounted for the bulk of our revenues and orders inthe first half of this year. The investment in BPT Skerman last year has provedto be the key to our growth in this division. PPE has won a number ofsignificant contracts in the past six months and our ongoing investment in thisarea is starting to pay dividends. We recently announced our largest contract todate, for £1.2 million, and we have developed a healthy sales pipeline.Quotation activity continues to increase and the success of our efforts isreflected in a forward order load of over six months with a delivery lead-timeof 16-20 weeks for major projects. The first fully integrated PDX productionsystem was commissioned for AAK Foods in Runcorn this month. The system iscapable of manufacturing 3.6 tonnes of various sauces per hour. "The full-scale commercial production wort boiling trials at a major brewer's UKsite have been successfully concluded. We have demonstrated significantoperational benefits and a greater than 35% energy saving. I am pleased toannounce that the customer has purchased the PDX equipment used in the trials,which it will use for further full-scale production trials at other sites. Thisfirst sale has validated the value of our technology in this stage of thebrewing process. Test work is ongoing on applications throughout the brewingprocess and initial results are very encouraging. The primary focus areas arelow temperature pasteurisation and mashing-in. We are also generating goodtraction with other major brewers and we will capitalise on this interest withthe official launch of the PDX Wort Boiler system at the European BrewingCongress 2007 to be held in Venice in May of this year. We look forward togenerating an income stream from this product during the rest of the financialyear. "In addition to the rapidly commercialising food and brewing applications, PPE is now moving into the dairy industry. We are in early stage discussions withvarious dairy groups and a number of trials are underway. Fire Suppression "The commercialisation of our PDX Fire Mist technology with Tyco Fire andBuilding Products ("TFBP") is continuing successfully and TFBP issued thisrecent update to us: " "The commercialization process of the PDX Fire Mist technology within Tyco Fireand Building Products is ongoing. The recent completion of the enlarged andenhanced Global Technology Center in Cranston Rhode Island (USA) has affordedthe TFBP technical team the capacity to increase the fire testing protocolsrequired to evolve the PDX Fire Mist from a conceptual water based fireprotection scheme to a commercialized system solution. "The live fire trials have been ongoing at Tyco Fire and Building Products.Preliminary results have reconfirmed the performance characteristics of the PDXtechnology; demonstrating superior fire extinguishment characteristics, whiledemanding less water resources, both critical components of any quality fireprotection technology. "The key contractual milestones of the working relationship between PDX and TycoFire and Building Products are being fulfilled. TFBP is currently finalizingthird party testing and approval criteria to commercialize the PDX system. Aninitial commercial launch in mid-2007 is anticipated." "We are very pleased by the progress being made by TFBP. The commercialisationprocess under our December 2005 agreement with them called for an aggressive andcomplex programme to attain the initial approval status and it is a reflectionof TFBP's professionalism and commitment to this project that they have remainedon track over the past 15 months. From both a technical and commercialstandpoint we are delighted that the live fire trials undertaken by TFBP havereconfirmed the superior performance of the PDX system. We look forward withmuch anticipation to the launch of this product. Decontamination "The scale of our involvement in the decontamination arena continues to growapace. This is a rapidly growing market and the PDX Basilisk technology has beenproved to have unique capabilities in a number of relevant fields. PursuitDynamics is active in several decontamination research and development areas andhas recently lodged, as a sub-contractor, a number of bids with major defencecontractors in response to requests from government decontamination programmes.We expect to learn the results of these proposals during the fourth quarter ofthis financial year and in the meantime we continue to develop further businessopportunities for our Basilisk technology. Research and Development "We run a number of R&D programmes at any one time. Our primary internal R&Dprogramme is based around bio-ethanol production, both conventional Generation 1(starch to ethanol) and Generation 2 (ligno-cellulosic material). We started theprogramme in December 2006 and are presently investigating the yieldimprovement, process compression and energy savings that might be available byusing PDX technology compared to conventional production with Generation 1material. Early indications are encouraging and indicate advantages in all threeareas. The first stage of the programme will be completed at the end of Apriland we will be in a position to update shareholders shortly thereafter. "We are continuing our R&D work in oil and gas applications with third parties.We are undertaking a number of trials in different application areas, rangingfrom emulsion breaking with heavy oils to various separation applications. Thesetrials tend to be lengthy and require considerable analytical work to beundertaken, usually by the third party with whom we are engaged. We have beenmaking steady progress and we are confident that we are moving towardscommercialisation in a number of areas. Outlook "The fundraising that we completed in February has provided the Company with anadditional £7.6 million net of expenses. The new money has enabled us toaccelerate our internal R&D projects. This activity is leading to the nextgeneration of applications for our technology. In addition to the progress beingmade by PPE, activity levels are high across all areas of our business withbrewing, fire suppression and decontamination all due to generate firstcommercial revenues this year. We remain on course to meet market expectationsfor revenues in the current year." For further information on Pursuit Dynamics, please visitwww.pursuitdynamics.com or contact: John Heathcote, CEO Simon HudsonCameron Mackenzie, Interim CFO Rachel DrysdalePursuit Dynamics PLC Tavistock CommunicationsTel: +44 (0)1480 422050 +44 (0)20 7920 3150 or +44 (0)7966 477256 ABOUT PURSUIT DYNAMICS Pursuit Dynamics PLC owns, and is developing, a patented platform technologywith applications across a number of industries. The core technology is based ona gas driven, supersonic shockwave system that produces controllable mixing,heating and process flow rates. Pursuit Dynamics operates as an R&D, directsales and licensing company and has already proved the application of itstechnology in the food industry. Its PDX(R) Sonic fluid processing product,which is a highly efficient system for use in the manufacture of prepared foodsand soft drinks, was launched in January 2005 and has been licensed to a numberof leading industry players in the EU, USA and Central America. Other potentialindustry areas under development include applications for waste treatment,brewing, personal healthcare and oil and gas. In addition to its applicability to process flow manufacturing industries, thetechnology has been adapted to address the markets for fire suppression anddecontamination. FireMist(R), Pursuit Dynamics' patented fire suppressiontechnology, is the most effective of all commercially available water mistsystems and has successfully extinguished Class A and B fires in building andaircraft simulation fire tests. In December 2005, Pursuit granted an exclusiveglobal licence for fire suppression to Tyco Fire & Building Products, a divisionof Tyco International Ltd (NYSE: TYC; BSX: TYC), the world leader in firesuppression. First revenues from this agreement are anticipated in 2007. In March 2006, Pursuit completed a one year contract with DARPA, a USgovernmental defence research agency for an application of its PDX(R) Basiliskdecontamination system. The system has a number of applications fordisinfection, human and animal healthcare and in the defence industry,principally in chemical and biological defence applications. Pursuit Dynamics is headquartered in Huntingdon, UK and has a US office inNorwalk, Connecticut. Pursuit Processing Equipment, the processing equipmentdivision of Pursuit Dynamics, operates from its own facility in Brooklands,Surrey, UK. Pursuit Dynamics is quoted on the AIM market of the London StockExchange (ticker: PDX). This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange