Ilika Plc Share News (IKA)

(Sharecast News) - Solid-state battery technology developer Ilika reported significant progress in its operations in a trading update on Thursday.

The AIM-traded firm said that in the first half, it continued to expand its Stereax business by delivering stacked M300 batteries from its UK manufacturing facility to customers.

Notably, a licensing and royalty agreement was signed with Cirtec Medical in August, allowing Stereax production to be transferred to Cirtec's manufacturing facility in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Ilika said it had already dispatched essential equipment for Stereax battery manufacturing to Cirtec, except for the cathode manufacturing process, which remained in the UK.

Collaborating with Cirtec, Ilika said it was also working closely with a portfolio of 20 customers to support their development plans and launch schedules.

The Goliath programme - another of Ilika's important initiatives - made significant progress during the period that ended 31 October.

Technical parameters were reportedly improved, and production scale-up plans were implemented.

The company confirmed the achievement of its D4 technical milestone and remained on track to achieve lithium-ion energy density parity by the end of 2023, aligning with the guidance set in November 2022.

To support its development efforts, Ilika secured grant funding through the Faraday Battery Challenge's HISTORY project, involving collaboration with BMW and Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE).

Additionally, the Automotive Transformation Fund supported the SiSTEM project, where Ilika collaborated with Mpac and the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC) for scale-up work since October.

Ilika said it was actively engaging with global automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to share Goliath P1 prototypes for evaluation in the first half of the 2024 calendar year, paving the way for large-scale manufacturing through licensing.

In terms of financial performance, Ilika expected to report revenue of £1.3m for the period - a significant increase compared to £0.2m in the first six months of the 2023 financial year, primarily due to increased grant funding from the HISTORY programme and the newly-announced SiSTEM grant.

However, the company did not expect that positive income trend to continue in the second half of the financial year due to the phasing of grant activity.

The EBITDA loss, excluding share-based payments, for the six months through October was expected to be £1.9m, another significant improvement compared to the loss of £4.1m a year earlier.

That improvement was attributed to the transfer of Stereax production technology to Cirtec.

At the end of the period, Ilika's cash and cash equivalents stood at £13.2m, down from £18.6m in the first half of 2023.

Ilika said it would release its half-year results for the six months ended 31 October on 23 January.

At 1342 GMT, shares in Ilika were up 3.68% at 44.58p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.