Windar Photo Regulatory News (WPHO)

WINDAR PHOTONICS - Trading Update

PR Newswire

London, June 11

12 June 2015

Windar Photonics plc(the “Company” or “Windar Photonics”)

Trading update

Windar Photonics plc (AIM:WPHO), the technology group that has developed a cost efficient and innovative Lidar wind sensor for use on electricity generating wind turbines, announces a trading update based on the Company’s performance during the first five months of 2015.

The Asian retrofit market is an important market for the Company in the near term. The Company has experienced delays primarily related to expanding and educating the service and installations team operated by our distribution partners in Asia. As a result we have seen an overall delay in expanding our installations and sales in this region during the first five months of 2015, which the directors expect to see continuing into the second half of the year.

In order to assist our Asian distributor to address these issues and help address the local market that has shown considerable interest in the Company’s Lidar system, the Company has established a representative office in Shanghai to provide local technical support to our distribution partner. With this support we expect these issues to be resolved, but the Directors anticipate that there will be a material revenue shortfall in this region for 2015, although sales in the rest of the world is anticipated to be in line with management's expectations. This will have a consequentially material adverse effect on the Group sales and losses for the current year ending 31 December 2015. However, the Directors believe the issues are of a short term nature and remain confident of the outlook for sales in Asia in the mid to long term.

The Company also announces that last month, Windar Photonics launched at the AWEA WindPower 2015 Expo in Orlando a new integrated control system, which combines with our WindEye™ Sensor product, in conjunction with the Danish company, KK Wind Solutions. With this new combined product offering, Windar Photonics is marketing a complete solution to the retrofit market whereby the WindEye™ Sensor will not only be focused on increased power generation but also load reductions on existing turbines in order to reduce maintenance costs and eventually increase the remaining lifetime of the turbines.

Windar Photonics has received its first test order for one of these retrofit control systems from the US based company IQ Innovations LLC. Commenting on the development IQ Innovation’s General Manager Thomas Johnsson said: “The Windar Photonics optimisation solution holds a lot of potential in regards to retrofitting, where it can help reduce life cycle costs for operations and maintenance, resulting in fewer stoppage days and less repair costs. The minimal maintenance complemented by the increased operation time makes the Windar Photonics optimisation solution very relevant from a return of investment perspective.”

Windar Photonics has also received its first test order for the newly developed 4-beam Lidar system. The order was placed by an European wind turbine manufacturer and will be commissioned in Q3 this year. The 4-beam Lidar system has been developed for the wind turbine manufacturers in order to measure not only wind speed and direction but also wind shear, which is particularly relevant for the larger MW turbines which can come under considerable loads in certain winds. The 4-beam Lidar system will also be tested at the Danish Technical University in Denmark where the wind assessment team will be measuring actual load reduction and estimating the financial benefits of using the 4-beam Lidar system developed by Windar Photonics.

Although the new Turbine Control Unit and the new 4-beam Lidar system are only expected to have a minor impact on the revenues for 2015, these two new business areas are expected to further underpin revenues in 2016 and beyond.

For further information:

http://investor.windarphotonics.com