Biomass-to-energy plants developer Kedco is well on the way to generating its first electricity in Northern Ireland by the end of June.
Kedco has raised a further £167,000 at 1.3p a share to provide working capital for the group.
In February, Kedco raised £403,000 from a placing at 1.3p a share and Farmer Business Developments (FBD) converted part of its convertible loan note – as it has this time. FBD initially converted £156,000 of loans into shares at 1.775p a share and the latest conversion price was 1.515p a share. This maintains its stake in Kedco at 22.1%.
Revenues grew from €5.4 million to €11.7 million in 2011 although that was mainly down to the sale of equipment to the Northern Ireland joint venture. The rest of the revenues came from the Latvian wood chip supply business. Kedco has cut its overheads but it still made a small loss in 2011.
Newry Biomass (a joint venture between Kedco and FBD) has initiated its first drawdown from its Ulster Bank facility in order to finance the completion of the Newry plant, which will sell approximately 29 million Kwh per annum of renewable energy to the electricity grid in Northern Ireland. The first 2MW of capacity will be on stream by the end of June. This site should eventually produce £2 million of annual EBITDA.
On top of this, Kedco is making progress with other similar projects, including one in London, which could cost £45 million. The London site could generate more than £8 million of annual EBITDA. That does not take account of sales of the heat produced, which could generate an additional £800,000 or so for every 1p generated by its sale.
Market: AIM
Symbol: KED
Price: 1.43p
12-month high/low: 3.38p/1.38p
Market cap: £4.2 million
