Nanoco Group unveils restructuring plan amid profit decline

(Alliance News) - Nanoco Group PLC on Wednesday reported an annual profit decline and outlined a strategic restructuring to reduce costs.

The Runcorn, England-based developer and manufacturer of cadmium-free quantum dots and other nanomaterials saw pretax profit in the 12 months to July 31 slump 80% to GBP1.9 million from the prior year's GBP9.6 million.

Nanoco's revenue rose 40% to GBP7.9 million from GBP5.6 million the year before, boosted by Samsung Electronics Co licence income from the second tranche of its litigation proceeds against the South Korean electronics manufacturer. Excluding this, revenue declined 29%.

Nanoco netted a GBP68.7 million profit on the sale of intellectual property in the prior period, which was not repeated this time around, hurting its bottom-line.

Nanoco said it has restructured to minimise cash burn and focus on commercial growth. Actions include the reduction of 27% of employees, plans to reduce the size of the board during 2025 and all non-executive directors deferring at least 50% of their salaries until July.

Additionally, Nanoco has appointed CDX Advisors LLC to explore a potential sale of some assets. The board emphasised that the review of these assets will not impact the company’s trading business.

Chief Executive Officer Dmitry Shashkov said: "We have a clear strategy to address our two core markets of Display and Sensing, along with working to define the opportunities outside of these."

The company did not propose a dividend for 2024, consistent with its approach in recent years.

Shares in Nanoco were up 4.4% at 11.63 in London on Wednesday afternoon.

By Eva Castanedo, Alliance News reporter

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