18 Jul 2008 12:42
Hydrodec Group plc ("Hydrodec" or "the Group")
Chairman's Statement
As your Chairman, I would like to reflect upon a wonderful and exciting year. Hydrodec has grown and matured from a development enterprise with a small commercial plant in Young into a full commercial enterprise with the completion of the building of the Canton plant.
Last year the seeds were sown when the Group raised GBP 13.8 million by way of a Convertible Note issue. This funding has been critical in enabling management to focus on delivering a quality plant ahead of schedule and under budget. This is quite a remarkable achievement and I would like to thank Mark McNamara, Keith Kooman and their team for their efforts. Although it is fair to say that they will not be resting. Mark, Keith and their team are now designing the Laurel plant, for which a decision to increase production capacity to one and half times that of Canton has recently been taken, reflecting the Group's confidence in the growing demand for Superfine oil in the US market. This plant is scheduled for completion by Q3 2009 with ground breaking expected next month.
The Group's recent success owes a great deal to the achievements of the sales effort in the US. From a position of no plant and product recognition, John Cowan, has led his team to deliver off-take agreement for up to 50% of the Canton plant and has secured the feedstock for the plant to commence operation. John has also established Superfine as a recognisable brand in the transformer oil market.
There have been a number of other significant achievements during the period, including the Virotec acquisition, the CSIRO pre-payment, the work being done in Japan and our new team in the US. All of this, is of course, underpinned by our Australian plant and staff. Their knowledge, expertise and "can do" attitude makes our Group work. I would like to thank all our staff for an excellent year of hard but rewarding effort.
In summary, our group has now laid the foundation for profitable growth, enhanced further by the removal of the royalty arrangements, and we are well positioned to realise the potential of the Group.
Enquires:
Hydrodec Group plc
John Gunn
+44 (0) 20 7621 5770
Numis Securities Limited
Nick Westlake (Nominated Adviser)
David Poutney (Corporate Broking)
Alex Ham (Corporate Broking)
+44 (0) 20 7260 1000
Emma Davis
Curve Public Relations
+44 (0) 20 8742 1597