Acta S.P.A raises 2.1m for expansion

Acta S.P.A announced Monday it has raised 2.1m pounds to finance working capital requirements for commercial expansion of the clean energy products company.

The funds were achieved through the issue and allotment of 42.21m ordinary shares at €0.006 each in the capital of the firm. The shares were placed at 5p each.

The company plans to make further developments after reporting growth in sales in its half yearly report for the period ended June 30th, 2012.

Commerical milestones facilitating the company's progress include the shipment of the first fully integrated fuel cell telecom back-up power system to SEFCA, Acta's Australian marketing and distribution partner, for trial with an major Australian telecoms company.

Acta also has a stream of orders coming in including for two further renewable energy powered electrolysers from M-Field Energy Ltd, a system integrator based in Taiwan. That along with two orders for the company's 1m3/hour hydrogen generator stack from the Spanish National Research Centre for Energy, Environment and Technology (CIEMAT) and from a German electrolyser manufacturer which is seeking to integrate Acta's hydrogen generator stack into its product range.

Last month the company's scheduled orders and contracts awaiting call-down stood at €970,000. Additional written proposals awaiting acceptance stood at €620,000 and project requests represented a total value of in excess of €10m.

"The board believes that the level of commercial interest that Acta's products are attracting clearly demonstrates the potential for Acta's technology and that the placing will provide new financing for continued business development including an expansion of production capacity to meet customer demand and will allow the company to continue to grow its commercial activities with existing customers and new commercial partners around the world," Acta said in a statement.

The net proceeds of the share placement will be used with grant funding of €1.4m - expected to be received during 2013 - to finance the continued growth of the company's commercial activities to new and existing customers.

Paolo Bert, Chief Executive of Acta said: "We have been delighted with our recent commercial progress and our next challenge is to continue this momentum while expanding our production capacity to keep pace with the growing demand for our products.

"We are grateful for the continued support of our shareholders and we are confident that this support will be rewarded over the next twelve months as we complete the transformation of the company into full-scale commercial operations."

Shares were down 7.48% to 5.88p at 9:48 Monday.

RD