Disappointing results from Symphony Environmental Technologies (SYM:AIM) send shares in the plastic additives specialist down 17.6% to 8.8p this morning.
The Hertfordshire-headquartered group had been forecast to break even in 2014 but it instead made a loss before tax of £390,000.
Revenue fell 12% to £6.35 million which was largely due to ‘timing issues’ for sales of its d2w masterbatch, which makes plastic bio-degrade.
The group says legislative momentum for d2w type products continues in several countries but there have been delays in implementation and it is ‘cautious of the timing of sales’.
Adjusted loss per share increased from 0.11p to 0.23p, which is discouraging given that Cantor Fitzgerald had expected the loss to narrow to 0.02p.
More positively the balance sheet remains robust with net debt falling to £0.2 million from £1.2 million a year earlier following a £1.6 million issue of equity.
Symphony has a high price to earnings ratio of 30.3 which is hard to justify given the lack of clarity around sales and legislation.
Cantor maintains its buy recommendation with a target price of 12p.
