Martin Wright, MCT's managing director said, 'With strong shareholder support and increasing interest in our tidal technology from around the world, we are showing that tidal stream energy is moving to a truly commercial proposition.

We now need to explore all the strategic options open to us to take advantage of our market leadership in tidal energy and the investment interest being shown across the marine energy sector.

KPMG and Black & Veatch will provide valuable support to help us to do this.'

KPMG's senior transaction services partner Christopher Casey said, 'We are very pleased to be working with MCT as the leader in this emerging sector in what is an increasingly important market. The company is at a critical stage of development, and it is vital that it is correctly positioned to take proper advantage of its commercial and technical lead.'

A commercial prototype of MCT's SeaGen tidal energy device will be deployed in Northern Ireland in September, supplying electricity to some 800 homes in Strangford and Portaferry. MCT is currently exploring the potential for tidal farms in waters off the coast of Wales and North Devon. Both projects are at a preliminary investigation stage.