Trading Update

RNS Number : 8673F

Ilika plc

04 May 2011

 



4 MAY 2011

ILIKA PLC

("Ilika")

TRADING UPDATE

Ilika (AIM:IKA), the advanced cleantech materials discovery company, ispleased to report substantial growth in joint development and contract research revenues, together with an increase in the level of grant funding for own research and development, in the financial year ended 30 April 2011.

Total revenues including other operating income increased to approximately £1.9 million (unaudited), 48% ahead of the previous year's total revenues, with committed revenues including other operating income for the first half of 2011/2012 already exceeding £0.7m (H1 2010/2011: £0.15m).

Losses before tax for the year improved slightly, compared with last year's reported loss of £3.26m. Cash balances remain strong, totalling £2.8m at 30 April 2011.

Commenting on these results, Graeme Purdy, Ilika's Chief Executive, said:

"We are pleased to have met the targets we set out at the time of our IPO a year ago. We have successfully demonstrated our capabilities to a number of world leading multinational corporations in the year, embarking on commercial projects with three new customers, whilst continuing to extend and deepen longer standing relationships.

"Significant progress has been made in the development of products building on previous work undertaken with our partners. Specific examples include:

1)   Our fuel cell programme with ITRI to deliver a cheaper fuel cell with a substantially reduced requirement for precious metals. Interest from partners in the automotive sector remains strong and we expect performance testing to take place during the current financial year.

2)   Our programme of scaling up a more energy efficient and safer hydrogen storage product from materials originally developed together with Shell. With one of our manufacturing partners, Sigma Aldrich, we have been successful in increasing levels of hydrogen storage capacity at the prototype testing scale.  This gives us further confidence of achieving first commercialisation of our material in 2012.

"Our expansion of business development activities has also ensured that there is a broad pipeline of new opportunities and the spend on R&D equipment has provided the capacity to secure these opportunities. We can therefore look forward to continuing the growth that we have achieved this year."

Ilika expects to announce its audited full year results for the year ended 30 April 2011 on or around 15 July 2011.

For more information contact:

Ilika plc Graeme Purdy, Chief Executive Steve Boydell, Finance Director	[phone] www.ilika.com
Nomura Code Securities Limited Phil Walker / Christopher Golden	[phone] www.nomuracode.com
Pelham Bell Pottinger Archie Berens / Charlotte Offredi	[phone]

About Ilika

Ilika (AIM: IKA) is an advanced materials company which accelerates the discovery of new and patentable materials using its unique high throughput technologies (''HTT'') process for identified end uses in the energy, electronics and biomedical sectors. This process enables hundreds of scalable materials to be made in a single, automated operation and subsequently tested for key properties.

Traditionally, materials development has been a slow and arduous task, with manual, sequential methods used to make samples of material that are then tested for suitability. On average, it takes between seven and 10 years to move from an initial discovery through to the first commercial prototype. Experiments carried out by the Company can be executed 10 to 100 times faster than using traditional techniques.

The Company focuses on three principal sectors and has a number of active development programmes addressing markets within each sector:

Energy - developing innovative new materials for Lithium-ion batteries for vehicles for Toyota; developing high capacity hydrogen storage materials with Shell Hydrogen and Johnson Matthey through joint development programmes; developing cheaper alternatives to Platinum electrodes for use in fuel cells through a grant-funded project with the Carbon Trust; developing new materials for use in fuel cells for the transport sector for a major vehicle manufacturer; and carrying out in-house research on film photovoltaic solar cells.

Electronics - developing lead-free piezoelectric materials through a joint development programme with CeramTec; and developing phase change memory materials for high capacity memory.

Biomedical - developing polymers to enable the filtering of somatic stem cells from blood with a major global supplier of filters; it has been selling its CryoSkin® and MySkin® products for the treatment of burns and wounds in the UK through a specialist distributor and intends to commence clinical trials of its corneal bandage candidate.

The Group's commercialisation strategy is to enter into joint development or licensing agreements with large multinational companies which are seeking to commercialise products developed using the intellectual property created through jointly-funded programmes. Current commercialisation partners include large multinational companies such as Toyota, Shell, Johnson Matthey and CeramTec.  The Company generates revenues from three sources: licensing and milestone payments from joint development programmes; fee for service from contract research projects; and from sales of CryoSkin® and MySkin®.

Further information can be found at  www.ilika.com

 

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