more shares in afc energy, page-2

raises ?4 million but loses managing director
Fri 8:53 am by Jon Mainwaring
AFC plans to use the funds to increase testing of its commercial fuel cell systems and for the firm?s working capital into 2013 Fuel cell firm AFC Energy (LON:AFC) has raised just short of ?4 million from a placing with Australian clean energy business Linc Energy and a group of institutional and private shareholders. But the firm also announced that it has lost its managing director due to ?differences in opinion?.

AFC plans to use the funds to increase testing of its commercial fuel cell systems and for the firm?s working capital into 2013. In its last set of results ? covering the 12 months to 31 October 2010 ? the firm produced a loss of ?3 million on revenues of ?181,000, which it received for the delivery and testing of a system for Linc. AFC?s current cash balance is around ?3.6 million.

Linc now holds 12 per cent of AFC?s shares. The Brisbane-based company is a specialist in underground coal gasification (UCG) and gas-to-liquids (GTL) technologies. The company is focusing on using these technologies to economically convert ?stranded? coal from deep underground into ultra-clean liquid fuels.

AFC also announced today that its managing director, Edward Wilson, had resigned due to differences in opinion regarding the strategic direction of the company. The firm is now planning to recruit a chief executive officer with international experience in the energy sector.

AFC is developing low-cost alkaline fuel cells that use hydrogen in order to produce clean electricity. These fuel cells systems are focused on large-scale industrial applications, with the objective of producing lowest-possible unit cost electricity.

In April, the firm said it had completed design work on its beta project to optimise performance for a commercial-scale fuel cell system. AFC is currently building its beta cells for proving trials at Dunsfold in the UK and with Akzo Nobel in Germany and it confirmed today that it expects these cells to be available by the end of June.

Earlier this month, AFC said it had struck a deal with German company N2telligence to use its fuel cells in N2telligence?s fire protection systems.

At 8.55am AFC?s shares were down 4.2 per cent at 46 pence each.