LONDON (Alliance News) - Applied Graphene Materials PLC Friday said that its overall trading performance in its full financial year was slightly ahead of company expectations.
Shares in Applied Graphene were trading up 15% at 215.00 pence early Friday.
The graphene materials producer said that during the year ended July 31, it significantly broadened the pipeline of identified collaboration opportunities, and provided over 120 evaluation samples to customers in more than 20 countries, with more evaluation quantities provided in the final quarter than in the previous nine months combined.
It also received its first patent approval from the Japanese Patent Office, generated positive data from independent coatings and oil trials, and ran promotional activity at 25 major international exhibitions in target market sectors.
"The board remains pleased with the progress achieved across these areas and more importantly, the increased pace of progress and momentum as the year has progressed," Applied Graphene said in a statement.
The company added that since the year end, it has been working on joint development agreements and programmes, including a collaboration with Millers Oils.
"Such collaborations represent an important milestone on the route to production orders and a fuller update will be provided with the full year results in November. The precise timetable to production orders remains to be determined, and whilst these collaborations are not expected to result in significant revenue for the business during 2016, the board considers that the traction achieved provides compelling evidence of the benefits of graphene and the value that Applied Graphene Materials can add," the company said.
Applied Graphene added that following the two full-week periods of 24-hour continuous running it undertook in its last financial year to support customer demand, it expects to commence this again later in the new year as demand increases.
It will also increase the capacity of its existing proprietary manufacturing process and invest in additional complementary production techniques in order to satisfy the full range of market opportunities that exist for graphene.
By Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com @KarolinaAllNews
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