Trading Update and Notice of Results

RNS Number : 5753V

Versarien PLC

03 November 2017

 

3 November 2017

Versarien plc

("Versarien" or the "Company" or the "Group")

Trading Update and Notice of Results

Versarien plc (AIM: VRS), the advanced materials engineering group, is pleased to provide an update on current trading ahead of the release of the Company's interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2017.

Trading across all parts of the Group has been encouraging since the start of the financial year on 1 April 2017.  The Company's more mature business, Total Carbide Ltd continues to make progress in the aerospace sector following on from the order announced on 7 September 2017, partly offsetting its historic reliance on the oil and gas sector.

The level of interest being expressed in Versarien's graphene continues at record levels.  In particular, the Group is currently in advanced negotiations with two of the world's largest consumer goods groups and anticipates receipt of the first purchase order imminently. The expected collaboration with one or both of these groups will be to work together on research, development and testing of Versarien's proprietary Nanene few layer graphene nano-platelets in polymer structures.

Additional negotiations are being held with a number of multinational companies in sectors as diverse as aerospace, automotive, packaging and consumer goods with a view to collaborating on the commercialisation of graphene enhanced products.  The Company looks forward to making further announcements on these as appropriate.

The Company is today announcing separately the intention to raise approximately £1.2 million through an institutional placing by WH Ireland, in conjunction with an offer via PrimaryBid (together the "Fundraising").  The proceeds of the Fundraising will be used to purchase capital equipment and provide working capital to enable the various existing and prospective graphene related collaborations to be progressed.  The intended capital equipment purchases are designed to enable the Company to increase the production capacity of its proprietary Nanene few layer graphene nano-platelets by a factor of approximately ten.

Notice of Results

The Company will be announcing its interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2017 on Wednesday 29 November.

The Company will be hosting an analyst briefing on the morning of the results at 9:30 a.m. in the City of London.  Analysts who would like to attend the briefing, or register interest in the Company, should contact Heather Armstrong at IFC Advisory Ltd on [e-mail] or on 020 7652 9781.

Neill Ricketts, CEO of Versarien, commented: "We are delighted with the progress that the Group is making, particularly in our graphene related activities, where we are seeing an accelerating level of interest from multinational companies in a variety of sectors wishing to collaborate with Versarien.

"The fund raising we are separately announcing today will enable us to invest in the capital equipment to scale up graphene production as we continue to sign collaboration agreements with global OEMs.

"We look forward to making further announcements regarding these collaborations in due course and provide further updates at the time of the release of our interim results."

This announcement includes inside information as defined in Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation No. 596/2014 and is disclosed in accordance with the Company's obligations under Article 17 of those Regulations.

Enquiries:

Versarien                                                                                           01242 269 122

Neill Ricketts, CEO

Chris Leigh, CFO

WH Ireland (Nominated Advisor)                                                    0117 945 3470

Mike Coe

Ed Allsopp

IFC Advisory (Financial PR and IR)                                                0203 053 8671                

Tim Metcalfe

Graham Herring

Heather Armstrong

About Versarien

Versarien plc (AIM:VRS), is an advanced engineering materials group. Leveraging proprietary technology, the Group creates innovative engineering solutions for its clients in a diverse range of industries. Versarien has five subsidiaries operating under two divisions:

Graphene and Plastics

2-DTech Ltd, which specialises in the supply, characterisation and early stage development of graphene products. www.2-dtech.com  

ACC Cyroma Ltd, which specialises in the supply of vacuum-formed and injection-moulded products to the automotive, construction, utilities and retail industry sectors. Using Versarien's existing graphene manufacturing capabilities, AAC will have the ability to produce graphene-enhanced plastic products.  www.aaccyroma.co.uk  

Cambridge Graphene Ltd, which supplies novel inks based on graphene and related materials, using patented processes and develops graphene materials technology for licensing to manufacturers.  www.cambridgegraphene.com 

Thermal and Hard Wear Products

Versarien Technologies Ltd. which owns the exclusive rights to a patent-protected additive process for creating advanced micro-porous metals targeting the thermal management industry and manufactures extruded aluminium heat sinks for the electronics and computing industries. www.versarien-technologies.co.uk 

Total Carbide Ltd, a leading manufacturer in sintered tungsten carbide for applications in arduous environments such as the oil and gas industry. www.totalcarbide.com 

 

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