Phil Edmonds, the England cricketer turned Africa entrepreneur, held out the prospect of booking the first revenues for his AIM-listed company since it was floated four years ago.

The company, whose name was changed to Agriterra in January, reported a loss of £2.13m - on zero revenues - for the last six months of 2008.

The result followed annual losses of £394,000 in the year to June 2005, £1.42m in 2006, a further £1.42m in 2007 and £44.7m last year - all without a penny of turnover being booked.

However, Mr Edmonds said that Agriterra, formerly an oil exploration business named White Nile, was on track for revenues now that it had been turned into an agriculture company and spent $17m purchasing three companies in Mozambique.

'Cash generative' acquisition

While Mr Edmonds described one of the companies, Mozbife, as a "prospective" beef operation, a second, Deca, a grain processor, was a "well established, cash generative business".

The third, Compagri, was set to "significantly increase group revenues" once it had been rebuilt around the Deca model.

Mr Edmonds said it expected African agriculture to provide "better near term returns" for shareholders than oil and gas, which gave White Nile investors a roller coaster ride.

The company's shares soared from 10p at its flotation in 2005 to 205p the next year on hopes for its 60% stake in a potentially lucrative oilfield , Block Ba, in southern Sudan.

But the shares tumbled below 1p last year as hopes dimmed that it would keep its hands on the oilfield. Edmonds struck his deal with Sudanese rebels, who are yet to get into legitimate government. And Total, the French oil giant, claims rights to Block Ba after exploring there in the 1980s.

Charge to oil assets

Agriterra's interim loss included a £1.36m impairment to its oil and gas assets.

"The volatile political situation in southern Sudan and the global economic downturn and fluctuating oil price have all contributed to undermine the perceived value of the company's oil and gas portfolio," Mr Edmonds said.

Agriterra shares closed unchanged in London at 3.25p.