Modern Water plc - Final Results

COVID19 and business model change leads to strong order book after transformational year

Modern Water today announces its audited final results for the year ended 31 December 2019.

Results

2019 has been another transformational year for Modern Water attributable to the shutting down of two subsidiaries, resulting in lower overhead from disposal of non-performing assets and reduced employees as we move to a more online equipment and consumables support service Company.

Highlights:

• Total 2019 revenue from continuing operations of £2.9m from 2018 £3.6m;
• EBITDA losses before exceptional items of £0.9m (2018: £0.5m);
• Administration costs reduced to £2.4m (2018: £2.5m);
• Operating loss of £1.6m (2018 £1m) after providing for Depreciation & Amortisation of £687k (2018: £483k);
• Sale of brine concentration plant to leading global producer of industrial chemicals;
• Largest-ever AMBC for Korea Salt Production Facility;
• Liquidation of Modern Water Services Limited;
• Liquidation of Modern Water Monitoring Limited;
• Sale of its largest single order for its Microtox® CTM to a customer in China.

Post Year-End Events:

Since the year end the following events have taken place:

• February: Oversubscribed £1.85 million placing;
• February: Appointment of Dr Nigel Burton to the Board of Directors;
• February: Agreement to join ecowaterOS consortium for real-time water monitoring, recovery, treatment and recycling;
• March: Appointment of Gerard Brandon to Chairman of the Board of Directors;
• March: Orders of water contamination detection consumables up 46% in Q1 2020 compared to Q1 2019;
• May: First Montana patented AMBC wastewater plant order from Ion Exchange (India);
• May: Montana Microtox® LX declared winner in China laboratory instrument award;
• May: Sichuan Province China orders Montana equipment.

Gerard Brandon, Chairman of Modern Water , said:

' While 2019 was a tough year financially for the Company, the structural changes were necessary to expose the opportunity to move from high-ticket sales, which had a high employee support cost, in desalinisation and the membrane divisions. The Company business model in 2020 has moved to a high volume, high margin recurring revenue strategy that has been in existence within the Water Monitoring division that was acquired in 2011.

'Modern Water continues to retain a leadership position within the water contamination monitoring sector and is adding the latest technologies in ecommerce, logistics, comms, networking and data encryption which extends the global reach of the Company beyond the US, EU and Far East offices. With thousands of sites and hundreds of water systems installed over the last 30 years, the Company retains a Gold Standard lead in water monitoring. The strategic challenge through this COVID-19 pandemic is being met with the move to provide support services online, making it easier and safer to interact with customers while at the same time to increase the capacity of our equipment to provide surveillance against all sorts of contaminants and threats including viruses and pathogens.

'The new platform gives us the ability to fully exploit the data the Company generates from different water systems across the world. Data analytics with the latest AI systems in collaboration with Company partners set Modern Water up for multiple revenue streams from equipment, consumables and predictive services for our existing and new clients coming online to manage their COVID-19 risk.'

Further information on our products and technologies can be found in the Chief Executive's Report.

For further information:

Modern Water plc	+44 (0)20 3827 3439
Simon Humphrey, Chief Executive
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (Nominated Adviser)	+44 (0) 20 7213 0880
Sandy Jamieson / Liam Murray / Ludovico Lazzaretti
Turner Pope Investments (Broker)	+44 (0) 20 3657 0050
Andy Thacker / Zoe Alexander

Notes to editors:

Modern Water is a pioneering and innovative technology company, specialising in membrane water treatment solutions and advanced monitoring products. The Company works for customers in a range of industries across the globe and owns proprietary technologies for use in a diverse range of applications. Modern Water's Monitoring Division has a portfolio of world-leading toxicity and trace metal monitoring products, some of which constitute the regulatory standard. The headline technology of the Company's Membrane Division, called 'AMBC', can be used to tackle complex wastewater treatment problems at a reduced cost compared to standard processes, while being simple to operate .

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