Administrative expenses amounted to € 1.28 million, compared to € 0.90 million a year earlier. This increase was due in particular to the Company's growth and costs associated with operating as a public company for all of the first half of 2008.
Investments were also made in the Company's business development activities, the cost of which increased by 180% to € 0.58 million over the period.
Results: Due to its rapid expansion, METabolic EXplorer reported a loss from operations of € 0.57 million, compared to a loss of € 0.24 million in HY1 2007. During the first half-year, share-based payments, relating to the free share allocation plan implemented for the benefit of the management team at the time of the IPO, totalled € 0.94 million.
As a result the operating loss after share-based payments amounted to € 1.51 million for the first half to 30 June 2008, compared to € 0.87 million in the corresponding period a year earlier.
The Company's first half net profit was € 0.70 million, compared to € 0.20 million for the first half of 2007. This increase was due to:
• income from cash and cash equivalents (€ 1.40 million), which fully benefited from the level of cash resulting from the IPO carried out in April 2007, as well as from high returns achieved as a result of successful investment policy. • a tax receivable, primarily due to a higher research tax credit (€ 1.14 million), based on the Company's increased R&D expenses
FINANCIAL POSITION: Group equity at 30 June amounted to € 71.6 million.
Cash and cash equivalents were € 54.9 million, compared to € 57.7 million at 31 December 2007.
The Group continued to invest in its business, with investments more than doubling when compared to the first half of 2007. This amounted to € 4.4 million of which € 2.5 million was the result of capitalised research and development expenses. The other investments related mainly to R&D and pre-pilot production equipment.
An 8 year leaseback arrangement for € 1,88 million was set up during the period to finance the balance of the investment in the Company's pre-pilot production facility, which came on stream in December 2007.
There was a significant € 2.39 million increase in the Company's working capital requirements in the first half of 2008. This was substantially reduced in July 2008 with the collection of €1.48 million of trade receivables and a € 1.40 million research tax credit.
In accordance with its strategy of prudent management, the Group only used € 2.8 million cash in the first half of 2008.
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