1.00pm
Listed milk producer A2 Corporation today posted a pre-tax loss of $2.158 million for the year ended March, flat on the year-earlier loss of $2.156 million.
The company said the loss reflected significant investments in protecting and expanding its intellectual property over the year.
Operating revenue was up 322 per cent to
$439,000.
A2 owns and licences intellectual property that enables the identification of cattle producing milk with A2 protein which the company claims is a "less risky" alternative to normal milk with either A1 casein or a mix of A1 and A2.
About 70 per cent of the national dairy herd produces milk containing some A1 protein, which A2 Corp claims is linked to heart disease and is "implicated" in autism and schizophrenia.
The claims have been disputed by some scientists and Fonterra.
Last year A2 signed a multi-million dollar partnership deal with a large United States corporation, IdeaSphere, to sell A2 milk in over 5000 US retail health food outlets, generating minimum royalty payments in the first year of $1 million and $4 million in the second year.
In addition, A2 said it expected to receive $2 million payment over two years from the testing of over 100,000 US dairy cows to identify those which carry the A2 beta casein milk protein.
The company is listed on the alternative NZAX and its shares were trading unchanged at 10c this morning, having fetched between 8c and 18c since it listed in April.
- NZPA
