Powerhouse Energy Group PLC (AIM:PHE) has swapped its acting chief executive as it continues to seek a new permanent boss to drive the new business strategy announced earlier in the summer.
Alongside half-year results that showed it had £4.9 million cash in the bank at the end of June – since topped up with £1 million last month – the company said Keith Riley has stepped down as acting CEO and as director for personal reasons, but will remain a consultant.
Ahead of the annual shareholder meeting tomorrow, chief operating officer Paul Emmitt will become acting CEO.
Chairman Antony Gardner-Hillman, who was appointed alongside three other non-execs earlier this year, said Riley remaining as a consultant to the company means “we retain access to his immense knowledge of the company and its business sector” and enable the handover to a new permanent CEO.
Earlier this summer, after taking full control of its Protos project in Chester, the company outlined a new business strategy to develop revenue streams by providing engineering services and developing a portfolio of capital projects including but not limited to its waste plastic-to-hydrogen process.
The first half of the year saw no revenue or profit as the revenues reported last year in servicing the Protos project have now been internalised, and so are reported as a cost, while the acquisition of engineering consultancy Engsolve occurred late in the period.
There were several commercial developments too, including the Protos acquisition, a framework agreement signed with Petrofac, another agreement in Northern Ireland with a view to developing a capital project in Ballymena, heads of terms for a joint venture with Hydrogen Utopia International at Longford, and progressing towards potential prospects in south-east Asia and Australasia.
Last month’s fundraising was to help fund a significant proportion of the build and fit-out costs for a new technology centre in Bridgend, Wales, which is built but awaiting commissioning of the testing unit and expected to open in the first quarter of next year.
Gardner-Hillman said the strategic shift was “a major step forward” and it has most of a boardroom in place to deliver it, adding that the profit and loss statement in the report “does not, in my view, reflect the true trading potential of the company”.
He said the technology centre “will become a cornerstone in PHE's ability to promote its technology and know-how”, helping support its investments in capital projects such as in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Protos.
While the company is confident in future demand for hydrogen, and will continue to develop related commercial projects, an equal near-term focus is to grow its presence in the provision of engineering services.
“The changes implemented during the first half of this year will enable this to happen. We look forward to updating investors on our progress as we continue through the year,” Gardner-Hillman said.