Trading Update

RNS Number : 1568L

Directa Plus PLC

11 January 2021

 

11 January 2021

THE INFORMATION CONTAINED WITHIN THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS DEEMED BY THE COMPANY TO CONSTITUTE INSIDE INFORMATION AS STIPULATED UNDER THE EU MARKET ABUSE REGULATION (596/2014). UPON THE PUBLICATION OF THE ANNOUNCEMENT VIA A REGULATORY INFORMATION SERVICE, THIS INFORMATION IS CONSIDERED TO BE IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN .

Directa Plus plc

("Directa Plus" or the "Company")

Trading Update

Directa Plus (AIM: DCTA), a leading producer and supplier of graphene nanoplatelets based products for use in consumer and industrial markets, is pleased to provide a trading update.

Trading

Further to the positive trading update on 3 December 2020, Directa Plus continued to perform strongly in the final weeks of the year, with better-than-expected sales of G+® enhanced face masks and growth at Setcar SA ("Setcar"), the Company's 51%-owned environmental remediation business.

As a result, based on its unaudited management accounts, the Company now expects to report total revenue for the year ending 31 December 2020 of approximately €6.5 million, exceeding its previous guidance and current consensus market expectations.

Setcar

Throughout 2020, Setcar has continued to build its reputation for service levels and outstanding real-world results, despite the headwinds caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Two notable projects that began in 2020 and are ongoing into 2021 include:

· Working with OMV Petrom S.A., the largest energy company in Southern and Eastern Europe, Setcar treated c.2,500 cubic metres of emulsion generated by the up-stream extraction process. This led to the recovery of c.550 metric tonnes of crude oil, with impurities below 1%, which were returned to the refinery for processing. We have been requested to raise to 2000 metres per month the production capacity in 2021.

· Working with Petrotel Lukoil S.A., part of LUKOIL Company, Setcar is completing the draining, cleaning and washing of an oil storage tank, beginning in November 2020. Using Grafysorber® technology, Setcar is recovering hydrocarbons by treating the sludge settled on the tank's bottom. This process will also restore the tank to factory nameplate capacity, optimising ongoing operational use by the customer. The project should be complete by mid-February 2021 and Setcar expects to treat c.3,200 cubic metres of sludge recovering more than 2,000 metric tonnes of hydrocarbons including oil and paraffins that can be sent back to the refinery.

Intellectual Property

Directa Plus has now received Notices of Allowance in respect of four patents, ahead of the formal grant, which is expected in the coming months, specifically:

· a US patent for the Company's Graysorber® environmental remediation technology.

· an EU patent for the Company's sustainable, chemical-free G+ production process.

· a US patent for the use of G+® graphene supermodifier to improve the performance of elastomers, specifically tyres; and

· an EU patent covering the same use of G+® supermodifier in tyres.

The Company's patent portfolio will be then composed of 42 patents and 25 pending patents, grouped together in some 16 patent families - four covering the Company's unique production process and 12 covering products and applications for G+® graphene.

Commenting. for Directa Plus, Giulio Cesareo, Founder and CEO, said:

"To have finished 2020 with better revenues than expected even at the start of December is enormously satisfying. We saw a year of hard work, in difficult circumstances, by all of our employees culminate in this success.

Our acquisition of Setcar, in partnership with GSP group, continues to prove its value and the business has moved from strength to strength. Through Setcar, we can deploy genuinely world-leading technology and are increasingly able to demonstrate outstanding results with a range of clients in a variety of geographies and projects.

Developing our intellectual property portfolio is at the heart of the Company's mission. We believe we have assembled an extensive and highly valuable IP portfolio protecting our chemical-free production process and G+ applications in verticals that have outstanding potential growth.

The new partnership started in 2020 with NexTech to develop a new Li-S battery is based on our ability to accurately control the morphology of G+ at scale and is opening a material new vertical for Directa Plus.

We look forward to this year with increasing confidence notwithstanding the headwinds from Covid-19."

This announcement has been approved by Giulio Cesareo, Chief Executive, on behalf of the Company.

ENDS

For further information please visit http://www.nextechbatteries.com:

Directa Plus plc	[phone]
Giulio Cesareo, CEO
Marco Ferrari, CFO
Cenkos Securities plc (Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker)	[phone]
Neil McDonald Pete Lynch
N+1 Singer (Joint Broker)	[phone]
Rick Thompson Phil Davies
Tavistock (Financial PR and IR)	[phone]
Simon Hudson Edward Lee

About Directa Plus

Our focus is principally on the two sectors in which we have strong commercial advantage through developed and launched products and a technological lead: environmental (based on our Grafysorber® product) and textiles (based on our G+ products). In addition, we will continue to pursue opportunities in elastomers and composites (including tyres and asphalt), also using our G+ products. All our products are hypoallergenic, non-toxic and sustainably produced.

About Setcar

Established in 1994, Setcar S.A. has focused since 2000 on providing a complete range of services to solve environmental issues in a safe and efficient way - from chemical analyses for waste identification to the development of tailored solutions for the waste treatment and by developing new technologies for the remediation of contaminated sites. Setcar's offering includes the decontamination of industrial plants and sites, soils contaminated with petroleum products, PCBs or other contaminants and petroleum and other hazardous waste in lagoons. The company offers its services both onshore and offshore.

-ends-

 

END

 

 

TSTBMMRTMTTBBAB