One of the world's biggest developers of carbon offset projects, UK-based EcoSecurities Group Plc (ECO.L: Quote), reported a higher than expected 2007 loss on Thursday, sending its shares 18 percent lower.
But the Oxford-based company said it was through the worst of its project approval problems with the United Nations.
EcoSecurities anticipates "significant profit" in 2009, though 2008 will be a transitional year with reduced financial losses, Chief Financial Officer James Thompson said.
The company posted a full-year loss before tax of 43.3 million euros ($67.50 million), compared to a 27.6 million euro loss expected by broker KBC Peel Hunt analyst Andrew Shepherd-Barron.
"The process for getting projects through the CDM (the U.N.'s Clean Development Mechanism) registration cycle continues to be very slow," Chief Executive Bruce Usher said by phone.
"Although the percentage of projects being pulled for review by the CDM's executive board hasn't changed, our performance is much better than average.">>>MORE
