Ilika Plc (LON:IKA), a pioneer in materials innovation and solid-state battery technology, provides a trading update for the six months ended 31 October 2017.
Financial Highlights
The financial results are expected to show a three-fold increase in total revenue for the period of £1.0m relative to the same period last year (H1 2016: £0.3m). Importantly, the high margin nature of the additional £0.7m of revenue has resulted in the operating loss reducing significantly, and the Company expects to announce an operating loss for the period, excluding share based payment charge, of approximately £1.4m (H1 2016: £1.9m). Cash and cash equivalents at the period end were £3.9m (H1 2016: £7.1m) with further receipts of £0.5m banked post period end.
Operational Highlights
The Company has continued to pursue the development and commercialisation of its proprietary StereaxÒ solid-state battery technology, which is a product-line originated through its globally-recognised expertise in the accelerated development of innovative materials for blue-chip OEM’s in high value sectors with large addressable markets.
Since the launch of Ilika’s StereaxÒ P180 battery in April 2017, Ilika has been growing its portfolio of interactions with partners targeting industrial deployments of wireless sensors, also referred to as IoT end-nodes. A recent example of this is the post-period end announcement of a deployment of StereaxÒ for the condition monitoring of turbine blades, with China’s largest manufacturer of wind turbines. Industrial IoT opportunities account for about 40% of the interest in StereaxÒ, which reflects the global growth of this sector. In China, the industrial IoT market is growing faster than consumer IoT. Some of the unique benefits of solid-state batteries make them particularly suited for industrial IoT environments; namely low leakage currents, ability to handle hostile environments and a long cycle life.
Currently around 50% of the StereaxÒ partnering discussions are with medical device companies interested in miniaturised medical implants with wireless communication functionality. In these applications the long life cycle is important, but also the possibility of making the devices on a mm-scale format makes StereaxÒ particularly useful.
Work has also been progressing with the qualification of StereaxÒ manufacturing partners, including both foundries and integrated device manufacturers. This is an important element of ensuring that the supply chain is well-positioned to respond to the potential large volumes of demand, in excess of Ilika’s current pilot line capacity.
Co-marketing with IoT ecosystem partners has been an important part of Ilika’s communication strategy, with a series of videos published on the Company’s website featuring discussions with ARM, Meggitt, IBM, Sharp and PA consulting (http://www.ilika.com/news/videos).
The materials development programmes continue to provide a rich set of interactions with OEM partners. The major materials development programmes in the period have been:
· plasmonic lenses and Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) materials with Seagate
· battery materials with Johnson Matthey
· game changing energy materials with Toyota and
· aerospace alloys in collaboration with partners including Rolls Royce, GKN and BAE Systems.
The Company will announce half-year results for the six months ended 31 October 2017 on 9 January 2018.
Graeme Purdy, CEO of Ilika Plc, commented: “I am pleased to see revenue tripling vs the same period in the prior year with a good quality margin helping to reduce our loss. We continue to manage our cost base carefully whilst making ongoing investment in Stereax to develop integrated IoT solutions to access a growing market for sensors deployed in a diverse range of environments. In addition, our proven innovation engine for novel functional materials has been firing on all cylinders in the first half of this year.”
