News blog

Active Energy Group

  • BY: Andrew Hore |
  • POSTED: 26/01/2015 |

Frank Lewis has been appointed as non-executive chairman of biomass, industrial wood chip and timber products supplier Active Energy Group.

Active is based in Ukraine but it is in a safer part of the country. Management has widened the scope of the business outside of Ukraine and it has set up a Canadian joint venture.
Lewis has been a director of a number of Aim-quoted companies based in the UK, China and other countries. He has been involved in companies that have required corporate governance and have had difficulties that need to be sorted out.

WH Ireland upgraded its forecasts for Active following its recent trading statement. The 2015 forecast revenues were increased from $53.1 million to $55 million, pre-tax profit from $4.7 million to $4.9 million and earnings per share from 0.48p to 0.52p. Further contract wins could lead to another upgrade.

Active has secured two new contracts with existing customer Yildiz Entegre, which is a leading Turkish MDF manufacturer. These supply contracts for hard and soft wood chip should double wood chip output to 500,000 tonnes in 2015. The first wood chip will be shipped in January. Supply has been agreed from the Ukrainian state forestry business. Soft wood chipping machines will commence operation in May.

Cost savings and foreign exchange movements have helped to improve margins. The growth will still depend on the stability of the Ukriaine.

The latest contracts provide an indication of the progress being made as well as the strong demand from Turkish MDF manufacturers. This year’s figures will be heavily second half weighted.

At 3.95p, the shares are trading on less than eight times prospective 2015 earnings and the Canadian joint venture is not even factored into these figures.

AIM Journal January 2015 available.

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