Trading Update

RNS Number : 0970W

Nanoco Group PLC

16 August 2022

 

    16 August 2022

NANOCO GROUP PLC

(" Nanoco ", the "Company" or the "Group" )

Year End Trading Update

Notice of Results

"Positive organic momentum and extended cash runway ahead of Samsung trial"

Nanoco Group plc (LSE: NANO), a world leader in the development and manufacture of cadmium-free quantum dots and other specific nanomaterials emanating from our technology platform, today provides the following year end trading update ahead of the announcement of its final results for the year to 31 July 2022, which will be released in October 2022.

Financial highlights:

· Unaudited revenues of £2.4m for the year ended 31 July 2022, in line with the Board's expectations and just over 10% above FY21.

· Continued proactive management of the cost base resulting in a reduced Adjusted LBITDA, slightly ahead of the Board's expectations.

· Unaudited cash position at 31 July 2022 of £6.8m, an increase of £5.0m since 31 January 2022, reflecting the over-subscribed £5.4m equity raise (net) in June 2022 and good operating cash performance in H2 FY22.

· Cash runway extended to calendar year 2025, beyond the expected point at which the Group's organic operations become self-financing.

Operational highlights

· Major work package (the fifth) for European electronics customer signed in June 2022, further underpinning the Group's cash runway.

· Additional development work and material supplies continue for the major Asian chemical company.

· Group order book more than doubled year-on-year.

· Ongoing consolidation of the Group's operations in to one facility in Runcorn.

Litigation update

· As previously announced, trial set to start 12 September 2022 and expected to last one week.

· Pre-trial conference date has been set for 18-19 August 2022.

· Judge issued ruling rejecting Samsung motion to change the definitions of an important technical term in the case (previously decided in Nanoco's favour at the Markman hearing).

Final results date

The Company expects to announce its final results for the year ended 31 July 2022 in the second half of October 2022.

Brian Tenner, Chief Executive of Nanoco, said:

"The Group delivered two very important milestones in the second half of FY22. We emphatically won all five patents and all 47 claims that were contested by Samsung at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. We also delivered a significant contract extension with our European electronics customer that covers the work required to scale up and validate our nano-materials for production readiness.

"We move forward with confidence to the scheduled trial in the IP litigation on 12 September 2022 and to validating our products in H1 of FY23, ahead of expected visibility of production orders shortly thereafter. We are completing the relocation of our Manchester operations into the consolidated site in Runcorn to deliver operational benefits and real cash savings.

"The combination of strong progress on the IP litigation and the underlying organic business is a robust platform to deliver significant value to all of our stakeholders in the short to medium term."

- Ends -

For further information, please contact:

Nanoco Group PLC :

Brian Tenner, CEO  [phone]

Liam Gray, CFO & Company Secretary                                                                               [phone]

Peel Hunt (Joint Corporate Broker):

Edward Knight  [phone]

James Smith

Turner Pope Investments (Joint Corporate Broker):

Andrew Thacker                                                                                                                     [phone]

James Pope

MHP Communications :                                                                                                        [phone]

Reg Hoare

Pete Lambie

[e-mail]

Notes for editors:

About Nanoco Group plc

Nanoco (LSE: NANO) harnesses the power of nano-materials. Nano-materials are materials with dimensions typically in the range 1 - 100 nm. Nano-materials have a range of useful properties, including optical and electronic. Quantum dots are a subclass of nano-material that have size-dependent optical and electronic properties. The Group produces quantum dots and other nano-materials. Within the sphere of quantum dots, the Group exploits different characteristics of the quantum dots to target different performance criteria that are attractive to specific markets or end-user applications such as the Display, Sensor and Electronics markets. An interesting property of quantum dots is their absorption spectrum. Nanoco's HEATWAVE™ quantum dots can be tuned to absorb light at different wavelengths across the near-infrared spectrum, rendering them useful for applications including image sensors. Another interesting property of quantum dots is photoluminescence: the emission of longer wavelength light upon excitation by light of a shorter wavelength. The colour of light emitted depends on the particle size. Nanoco's CFQD®quantum dots are free of cadmium and other toxic heavy metals, and can be tuned to emit light at different wavelengths across the visible and infrared spectrum, rendering them useful for a wide range of applications including displays, lighting and biological imaging.

Nanoco was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Manchester, UK, with a US subsidiary, Nanoco Inc., in Concord, MA. Nanoco continues to build out a world-class, patent-protected IP portfolio generated both by its own innovation engine, as well as through acquisition.

Nanoco is listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange and trades under the ticker symbol NANO. For further information please visit: www.nanocotechnologies.com.

 

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