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(Alliance News) - Ceres Power Holdings PLC on Friday said it suffered a widened annual loss in 2022, as licence fee income more than halved, and posted reduced revenue in-line with guidance.
The clean energy technology developer reported a pretax loss of GBP49.0 million in 2022, widened from a loss of GBP23.4 million the year prior, as operating loss widened to GBP51.5 million from GBP23.4 million.
Revenue dropped sharply to GBP22.1 million from GBP30.8 million, though Ceres noted this was in-line with previous guidance. In particular, licence fees fell to GBP7.7 million from GBP16.6 million a year earlier.
Ceres said its order book reduced to GBP67.8 million as at December 31 from GBP78.7 million on the same date a year earlier.
Gross margin reduced to 59% from 62%, reflecting the reduction in high-margin licence fee income recognised in the year compared with 2021.
On a positive note, Ceres said its investment increased by 67% in 2022, rising to GBP58.4 million from GBP34.9 million the previous year. This was in-line with its strategy to expand into electrolysis for green hydrogen and deliver the "next generation" of fuel cell technology, it said.
Chief Executive Officer Phil Caldwell says: "It has been another productive year at Ceres with our first electrolyser modules on test, an exciting new partnership with Shell, and a collaboration with Linde Engineering and Bosch for green hydrogen. We are making good progress on power systems with existing partners Bosch and Doosan to scale production."
Looking ahead, Ceres said it continues to work towards a move up to the Premium Listing on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange.
Shares were down 3.8% at 340.72 pence each on Friday morning in London.
By Xindi Wei, Alliance News reporter
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