The company reported revenue of $6.503 million, a net loss after tax of $4.245 million and biodiesel sales of 5.98 million litres.

ABG forecasts for 2006 include earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) for Australian operations of $900,000 and a group pre-tax loss of $2.6 million.

The company expects to make a pre-tax profit of $1.6 million in the second half of 2006.

ABG has highlighted unexpectedly high production costs as the reason for the significant loss.

In early August, maintenance work was carried out on the company’s Berkeley Vale production facility, which required a two-week shutdown to improve wastewater treatment and methanol recovery facilities.

Meanwhile, as part of an agreement with Transfield to supply financial and management resources to ABG, the company has appointed senior Transfield executive Martin Earp as chief operating officer on an interim basis.

ABG said following Earp’s appointment and the formation of the agreement with Transfield, Humphreys believed the business was well placed to manage the operational challenges before it and announced his resignation.

Humphreys has elected to continue on with ABG as a non-executive director.

ABG shares were up 13.1% to 73.5c just before midday.