AEA Technology 'worthless' as it hoists for sale sign

The struggling climate-change firm AEA Technology finally gave up the ghost yesterday as it put itself up for sale and said the shares were worth nothing.

AEA was originally the commercial arm of the UK Atomic Energy Authority. It was spun out of that body in 1994 and floated in 1996.

But the company has been hit by a string of profit warnings after contract delays and the failure of its Washington business to win key orders.

It is also saddled with a pension liability of £165.5m and has been unable to agree a long-term solution to its woes with bank Lloyds and pension trustees. AEA has net debts of £34.3m alongside the pension burden.

Shares in the company, which are already in penny-stock territory, crashed another 82 per cent yesterday to 0.035p, leaving it with a market value of £510,000, as AEA warned it did not expect "offers for the share capital of the company", meaning that investors should expect "little or no value" for their holdings as a result.