LONDON (Alliance News) - Versarien PLC Tuesday posted a widened pretax loss for its recently ended financial year as higher costs offset strong growth in revenue, and it expressed optimism for its current year.
The advanced engineering materials company posted a pretax loss of GBP866,000 for the year to end-March, widened from a pretax loss of GBP653,000 a year before, as a rise in revenue to GBP5.0 million from GBP3.0 million was offset by a rise in operating expenses and exceptional costs of GBP307,000.
Exceptional costs included GBP76,000 of acquisition and potential acquisition costs, GBP69,000 of start-up costs for its joint venture DV Composite Tooling, and GBP162,000 in restructuring costs related to the relocation of its Total Carbine business.
During the year Versarien completed two acquisitions, and is now organised into three segments: thermal products, hard-wear products and graphene products.
In its largest segment, hard-wear products, the company produced sales of GBP4.6 million. Versarien noted that as the oil price has declined, the market for its products has weakened, but said it has mitigated this by diversifying its customer base to include new territories and sectors.
In thermal products, revenue increased by GBP351,000, bolstered by the company's acquisition of the assets of Custom Systems and launched a new range of air cooled heat sinks.
In graphene products, Versarien has focused on developing a process it has licensed through the University of Ulster and part funded by the University of Manchester.
Versarien said it continues to look at opportunities to grow the business both organically and by acquisition.
Shares in Versarien are trading up 7.2% at 21.17 pence Tuesday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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Versarien (VRS)