M-Power, Energy Made Clean merger off

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West Australian wave power developer Carnegie has backed away from a deal to sell its solar hybrid operations, EMC. At its AGM, non-executive Chairman Terry Stinson noted that EMC had performed “far below expectations” despite having established “a positive reputation in the market for technical capability, customer support, quality, and project delivery.”

While EMC has been a loss-making business for Carnegie, Stinson said that “many projects” are now close to completion and the business has been stabilised. He noted that all projects EMC was working on when Stinson assumed his role one year ago “were over budget and behind schedule.”

Hybrid solar, Stinson observed, “is a very competitive business”, with tight margins and competitive bidding.

“Arising technical challenges, supplier issues, and misunderstood customer specifications added rework, cost and time to the projects,” said Stinson.

Overall, Carnegie registered a $63 million loss on $10 million in revenue last year. Its share price fell from $0.057 – $0.024 in the same period, and now sits at less than $0.01/share.

The ABC spoke to Carnegie shareholders at the AGM who, unsurprisingly, expressed their concern.

“I’ve been coming along to these shareholder meetings now for more than 10 years,” shareholder Greg Benjamin told the ABC. “We always have a good story, there’s a lot of cause for optimism about wave energy, but we just haven’t seen any results.”

Carnegie’s new CEO Jonathan Fievez committed to increasing transparency regarding its business activities, including EMC.

At its AGM, Carnegie announced that it would move from its current premises in Belmont, in Perth’s east, to its former quarters in Fremantle.

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