LONDON (Alliance News) - Torotrak PLC Wednesday said its loss widened in its last financial year as it continued to invest heavily in its product offering and revenue more than halved.
The company, which provides gearless traction drive technology to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions in vehicles, posted a pretax loss of GBP4.7 million for the 12 months ended March 31, compared with a GBP391,000 loss a year earlier, as revenue fell to GBP3.5 million from GBP7.5 million.
Torotrak blamed its loss on lower licensing revenue and increased investment in the development of its technology platforms. The firm increased investment in core component manufacturability and prototypes to GBP4.0 million, from GBP100,000 a year earlier.
License revenue in the year was GBP3 million, or 85% of group revenue, compared with GBP6.0 million, and 80% of group revenue, in the corresponding period. Engineering services revenue fell to GBP0.5 million, from GBP1.5 million, as it moved to producing its own products.
Torotrak often receives additional fees for providing services to support licensees' product development from design and development to system integration and test. Once production starts, it then earns per unit royalties based on product sales by its licensee partners.
The company is trying to move from being a pure technology licensing business to one where it makes low volume, but high value products itself. It has invested in its manufacturing facility, and, last December, it bought Flybrid Automotive Ltd in a move to give it a stronger foothold in the automotive hybrid technology market.
Financially, the firm closed the year with a cash balance of GBP14.9 million, compared with GBP8.9 million a year earlier. Torotrak said its strengthened balance sheet provides a robust platform to negotiate commercial arrangements with original equipment manufacturer prospective partners and "enables us to continue our programme of investing in our technology platforms".
Torotrak shares were quoted up 1.3% at 22.80 pence Wednesday morning.
By Anthony Tshibangu; anthonytshibangu@alliancenews.com; @AnthonyAllNews
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