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A restructuring and refocusing helped forestry and biomass specialist Active Energy (LON:AEG) report a 184% increase in turnover for 2014, it told investors on Monday.
The year saw the continued turnaround in fortunes and significant improvement to margins at its core operations, it added.
Traders welcomed today's results and shares nudged 2.12% higher to 6.025p.
The firm relocated Ukrainian operations to new Black Sea port facilities and focused production resources on high-margin wood chip exports to MDF manufacturers in Turkey, while it also invested in new business ventures, to lessen the reliance on a single business.
The well established wood chip for MDF manufacture business saw "exceptionally" strong growth, with production and shipping volumes increasing by more than 126% to 154,103 tonnes in 2014, compared to 2013, the company said.
Revenues in the division rose to US$17.395mln last year from just US$1.588mln the year before.
In woodchip for biomass for energy, despite a small increase in volumes, revenues decreased by 10%.
Last year saw US$0.3mln of investment endorsed for research and development of second-generation renewable biomass for Energy (BFE) fuel solutions and advanced fuel manufacturing systems, while the group also excitingly struck an agreement to commercialise around 256,000 hectares of forestry and agricultural land in western Canada.
Its joint venture KAQUA, in which it owns a 44% stake, is now in the process of mulling offers received as to how to develop the assets
Last month, Active said its Italian biomass supply contrcat had come to an end, so it could focus on Canada and Ukraine and also unveiled a proposal for a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with the Ukraine government at the New Ukraine 2015 Investment Conference in Kiev.
Active Energy plans is to commercialise the country's extensive timberland and forestry assets for a sustainable clean energy power generation option for Ukraine.
Overall, the group posted sales in 2014 of US$23.325mln, compared to US$8.207mln in 2013. The operating loss was US$1.261mln compared to a loss of US$3.359 mln in 2013.
Active's chief executive Richard Spinks said today: “2014 was a year of growth, re-investment and diversification for AEG.
"We more than doubled the size of our core wood chip business in Ukraine, which confirmed our long-term business strategy and encouraged us to invest US$2.0 million in 2015 to significantly increase our production capacity and introduce a new product line.”