Bglobal losses widen

ENERGY ‘smart metering’ company Bglobal has seen pre-tax losses widen, however the introduction of legislation in April this year means orders are on the increase.

The AIM-listed company, which is based in Lancashire, widened its pre-tax loss by 23% to £4.28m, compared with £3.47m a year ago. However, revenues increase by 48% to £6.64m for the year to the end of March 2009, up from £4.5m in 2008.

The company said its results were below expectation and that this was down to one of its meter funders withdrawing in October 2008. This, it said, meant the group was unable to offer third party rental finance, causing delays in the roll out of its order book while new funding was found.

It added that a 77% increase in recurring revenue to £970,000 (2008: £550,000) has helped to offset the impact of the depreciation in sterling against the US dollar.

The group’s cash balance stood at £527,000 at 31st March 2009, but has since improved to £1.17m. At the beginning of the month the company secured a facility of up to £15m of meter asset funding from Barclays Asset & Sales Finance through a third party.

From April this year, all new and replacement meters in the medium industrial and commercial markets this sector have to be ‘smart’, increasing demand for the company, which estimates that some one million meter points will need to be replaced over the next five years. It currently has a forward order book of 120,000 meters.

Anthony Barnes, group chief executive, said: “The group’s sales turnover and meter installation numbers increased significantly during the year which is very pleasing.

“We have maintained our number one position in the market place, despite operating in tough economic conditions which caused the loss of a major funder of meter assets. With new meter asset funding now in place, confirmation of aggressive rollout plans by major utility customers, clear signals from the government on the importance of smart metering to climate change reduction in the UK and a strong forward order position, we are confident in the outlook for the year ahead.” 

The company also announced that to “streamline the board”,  John Atkin has resigned as finance director and Martin Evans has resigned as a non executive director with immediate effect.