First published in the Quoted Cleantech newsletter, January 2011. Copyright Cleantech Investor 2011

December saw London’s Alternative Investment Market welcome ProPhotonix, an Irish light emitting diode manufacturer and photonics technology specialist.

The company joined the market just before Christmas, when it raised £825,000 from a placing at 20p per share. It also converted $1.4 million of debt into shares at the placing price, which valued the business at £10.5 million.

ProPhotonix manufactures LED arrays and engines in Cork, Ireland and laser diodes in the UK. The firm’s core market has been the machine vision sector, and it has also been making inroads in the medical sector. Revenues dipped from $14.8 million to $10.5 million in 2009, but turnover recovered in 2010.

In the first nine months of 2010, ProPhotonix reported higher revenues than in the whole of 2009, while the company’s losses are decreasing.

Both the laser diodes and LED parts of the company are recovering, with the latter business growing at a faster rate. ProPhotonix says that the LED portion of the medical devices market was estimated at $140 million in 2010, while the market for lighting systems for the machine vision sector is estimated at $108 million.

Libertas Capital Corporate Finance Limited acted as Nominated Adviser and Broker to ProPhotonix on its flotation.