International Business Develo

RNS Number : 0953U

Ilika plc

08 October 2010

 



8 October 2010

Ilika plc

("Ilika" or the "Company" or the "Group")

Ilika expands its business development activities in the US and Asia

United States

Ilika is pleased to announce the appointment of the JGW Group ("JGW") to help develop new business opportunities primarily in the US aerospace and defence sectors. JGW, which is headquartered in Virginia, is well placed to access US Department of defence sites and has a proven track record of helping clients secure government contracts.

Alongside JGW, the Company announces the appointment of Stuardo Robles as a new business development director.  Stuardo is a senior engineer and marketing professional with more than fifteen years of comprehensive business and technical leadership in manufacturing systems and related services in the global semiconductor industry, primarily with Applied Materials Inc.

Japan

Ilika has extended its relationship with Blue Rise Partners ("Blue Rise"). In addition to representing Ilika in the electronics and energy sectors, Blue Rise has appointed Takashi Matsui who will seek out opportunities for the company in the bio-medical sector.

Takeshi Ishikawa, business development director for Asia who has been with the company since 2005 and instrumental in the securing of a number of significant contracts, is relocating to Tokyo to spend more time addressing the increased interest that the Company is enjoying from Japanese multinationals. 

Graeme Purdy, Ilika's CEO, commented, "These appointments significantly strengthen Ilika's ability to support its existing customer base and market its services to a much wider audience."

For more information contact:

Ilika plc Graeme Purdy, Chief Executive Steve Boydell, Finance Director	[phone]
Nomura Code Securities Limited Phil Walker / Christopher Golden	[phone]
Pelham Bell Pottinger Archie Berens / Olly Scott / Francesca Tuckett	[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®.

www.ilika.com

 

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