Trading Results & Update on 31 March '21 Accounts

RNS Number : 5270J

Tirupati Graphite PLC

24 August 2021

 

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) 596/2014 which is part of UK law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. Upon the publication of this announcement this information is considered to be in the public domain.

24 August 2021

Tirupati Graphite plc ('Tirupati' or the 'Company')

Trading Results for the Year Ended 31 March 2021 and update on finalisation of audit of the 31 March 2021 accounts

Tirupati Graphite plc, the fully integrated, revenue generating, specialist graphite producer and graphene and advanced materials developer, wishes to announce that its audited results for the year ended 31 March 2021 are expected to be published on or before 17 September 2021.

In the interim, the Company is pleased to announce unaudited trading results of its operations during the period 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021. In this period, the 3,000 tpa Sahamamy facility which had declared commercial operations from January 2020, was in production while its first 9,000 tpa facility at Vatomina was under construction:

Particulars	Units	YoY Change	FY 2020-21	FY 2019-20
Mining & Processing costs	£	+10%	304,975	277,644
Human Resources costs	£	+41%	228,731	161,480
Logistics utilities & plant admin costs	£	-20%	52,784	65,601
(Increase) / Decrease in inventory of inputs	£	+6%	(98,407)	(92,726)
Total Costs of Production	£		488,083	411,899
Total Production	MT	+ 30%	1,718	1,318
Cost per MT of Production	£		284	313
Total Sales Volume	MT	+54%	1,857	1,206
Total Revenues	£	+42%	1,123,426	793,577
Average Selling price per MT of Production	US$ / £ per MT	-8%	801 / 605	835 / 658
Gross Profit	£	+66	635,342	381,678
Gross Margin on Sales	%	+9%	57%	48%
Increase in Gross Profit for the year	%		66%	NA

The Company notes that during the period under review:

· Despite the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic which effected the Company's operations during a substantial part of the year, the Sahamamy facility remained operational throughout, although with related challenges which impacted on total capacity utilisation of the facility during certain periods;

· Within Inventories, there was a significant increase in inputs, stores and spares (+50% y-o-y), as the Company increased its inventories of inputs, stores and spares to mitigate against the longer procurement and logistics timeframes due to the impacts of the pandemic;

· Total Production during the year increased by 30% and Total Sales Volume increased by 54% over the previous year;

· Total Revenues increased by 42% from £0.79m to £1.12m;

· Realised Average Selling price per MT of graphite sold showed slight reduction which was attributable to reduced market prices in the first three quarters (i.e. April 2020-December 2020) due to impacts of the pandemic, and strengthening of sterling against the US$ during the year from c.US$1.24 to c.US$1.37;

· Notably, Gross Margin on Sales increased by 9% from 48% the previous year to 57%, in line with the Company's expectations as production continues to increase;

· The Company remains on track and with its recent capital raise of £10 million in April 2021, is in a sound financial position to deliver on the current phase under its medium-term development plan which will see its production capacity in Madagascar increased up to 12,000 tpa in the immediate term and up to 30,000 tpa in the next financial year (see RNS dated 16 April 2021); and

· As previously noted, the acquisition of Tirupati Speciality Graphite Pvt Ltd ('TSG') is in the process of statutory approvals and we are not able to consolidate the financials of TSG until completion of the acquisition.

For further information, please visit https://www.tirupatigraphite.co.uk/ or contact:

Tirupati Graphite Plc Puruvi Poddar	[phone]
Optiva Securities Limited (Broker) Daniel Ingram	[phone]
St Brides Partners Ltd (Financial PR) Isabel de Salis	[phone]

Notes

Tirupati Graphite Plc is a revenue-generating, multi-asset, multi-jurisdictional, fully integrated producer and developer of high-grade natural flake graphite, speciality graphite and graphene and graphene enhanced advanced materials.  With a unique set of properties, graphite has diverse applications with multiple growth streams and graphene forms the new generation of 2D and advanced materials. The Company places a special emphasis on "green" applications, including renewable energy and energy efficiency, energy storage, thermal management, and advanced materials development, and is committed to ensuring its operations are sustainable as well.

The Company's operations include primary mining and processing in Madagascar, where the Company operates two key projects, Sahamamy and Vatomina; 3,000 tpa of high-quality flake graphite concentrate with up to 96% purity is currently being produced and sold to customers globally, additional 9,000 tpa capacity is under commissioning, start of production imminent in the near term, and which is planned to increase up to 84,000 tpa by 2024 as per the Company's modular medium-term development plan.

In India, through Tirupati Speciality Graphite Private Limited ('TSG'), with whom the Company has a binding acquisition agreement subject to regulatory approvals, Tirupati is developing a suite of speciality graphite for use in hi-tech applications like lithium-ion batteries, fire retardants, thermal management, and composites. Its current operations include the 1,200 tpa Patalganga Project, which was commissioned in July 2019 to manufacture and sell CARBOFLAMEX®, a trademarked fire-retardant expandable graphite product. TSG is further developing 30,000 tpa specialty graphite project in two 15,000 tpa modules which will include capabilities to manufacture high-purity, expandable, micronized and spherical graphite and using its unique green processing technologies for the manufacturing of these advanced materials.

TSG has also established and continues to develop the Tirupati Graphene and Mintech Research Centre, a state-of-the-art R&D centre focussed on manufacturing graphene, developing its applications and advanced materials using graphene, and further providing environmentally friendly technologies consultancy for mineral processing. 

 

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