EcoSecurities declares profit as takeover saga rumbles on

EcoSecurities, the Ireland-based carbon offsetting firm at the centre of a long-running takeover saga, has today posted a profit for the first six months of the year and recommended that shareholders reject the latest takeover bid for the company.

Last month, Guanabara, a holding company set up by EcoSecurities co-founder and former president Moura Costa, launched an unsolicited cash bid of 77 pence per ordinary share for the company.

However, today EcoSecurities' management urged shareholders to reject the bid, issuing a statement claiming it "undervalues the company and its prospects ".

"The board considers this offer to be wholly inadequate and this is reinforced by the interim results that the company announced this morning," said Mark Nicholls, chairman of EcoSecurities. "The board of EcoSecurities remains fully committed to delivering shareholder value to all its shareholders and therefore strongly urges shareholders to reject the Guanabara offer."

His comments came as the company announced that it had delivered " significantly improved financial performance" for the six months to the end of June, and achieved its first period of profitability.

The results revealed that revenue for the period increased more than fourfold year on year to €60m (£51m), while also recording a pre-tax profit of €1.1m, marking a turnaround on the €10m loss posted during the first half of last year.

Nicholls said the company remained well positioned for further growth despite the downward pressure on carbon credit prices caused by the global recession.

"With EcoSecurities' visibility of revenue provided by the forward sales contracts, its reduced cost base and strong balance sheet, the group is well positioned not only to progress successfully during the current period of low CER prices and worldwide economic downturn, but also to take advantage of the potential recovery of CER prices in the latter part of the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol," he predicted.