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Positive Q1 results from AMS AG this morning. Comparable business to, and subject to same market influences as, IQE.
https://ams.com/-/04-30-2019-q1-2019-results

My recollection (not checked) is that during the presentation or q and a ME said the working relationship with Dupont/Dow was closer than ever and on occasion Nanoco provided dots for Dupont and vice versa. It is possible Dupont are helping Nanoco fulfil their commitment to supply Wah Hong with dots.

For my part I expect to find participants whose contributions I find valuable and others who add nothing of interest to me. Least said about them the easier it is to ignore them. I expect others to have different perspectives and welcome the fact they can. Their reward, or lack of it, lies in the performance of the company. As I see it the last year has been disappointing from an upside perspective. But the contracts with the unnamed US company have removed much of the downside. This is going to take much longer than I hoped. But the upside continues to look fantastic.

Excellent news. This is how Plessey describe themselves in the announcement NigWit reports: available on apnews.com

About Plessey

Plessey is a UK-based leading developer of advanced optoelectronic technologies. The company provides volume processing of its unique and proprietary GaN-on-silicon platform for a wide range of optoelectronic devices and systems.

With headquarters located in Plymouth, England, Plessey operates leading-edge 150mm and 200mm wafer processing facilities to undertake design, test and assembly of products, and a comprehensive suite of photonic characterization and applications laboratories.

Plessey is an award-winning provider of innovative illuminators for display engines (DMD and LCOS) and full-field emissive microLED displays that combine very high-density RGB pixel arrays with high-performance CMOS backplanes to produce very high-brightness, low-power and high-frame-rate image sources for head-mounted displays (HMDs), and augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) systems.

I thought the presentation addressed head on the question whether more capital would be needed and both CEO and the new CFO were clear there was enough cash to get through to commercial production with the US partner.
There were a couple of glimmers of hope offered. A questioner at todays presentation suggested Samsung may launch a sub $1000 dollar QD TV on Black Friday which would broaden the market for QD TVs. And there were suggestions Dow may start supplying QD film to Samsung. The slowness of the display, or any other, market to develop has been disappointing so I understand the exasperation some express. But I will continue to hold.

Minor update on edison research's website today following visit to Runcorn in September: new facilities appear to be on schedule; progress in display remains slow but Edison still believe the opportunity could be significant if the company can convert some TV deals in the pipeline.
https://www.edisoninvestmentresearch.com/research/company/nanoco-group

The consensus financial flows for Nanoco's financial year to end July 2019, as summarised on digital look, pencil in revenue of £8m in the year to end Jul 2019 and a pretax loss of £5.6m. That implies recurrent spending averaging just over £1m a month for the year as a whole. No doubt the numbers will be refined as the months go by. Once there is evidence revenue is coming in more investors may focus on the potential here.

Hitachi appear to be using cadmium qd's : footnote 3 of their press release NigWit provided the link to today at 18.23. I hope to be corrected.

If Nanoco produce quarterly statements when it suits them they would have to do the same when it did not. For a small company where revenues were lumpy there might be poor quarters because of erratic movements in revenues received. Plus producing quarterly statements and presenting them probably takes days of work of several senior managers time. Not sure that is the best use of their time as no more cash raising needed. We just need to be patient a few months longer. Once the company is big enough to have more managers and more revenues so erratic movements are less likely the case for quaterly reporting is stronger. Personally I hope the Board decide and publish a dividend policy with the next results whenever they are published.

BTB Nanoco have not set targets for future revenues. The brokers note you refer to forsees an improvement in financial performance in 2018H2 (Jan-Jul 2018) and projects Nanoco will have cash balances of �7.4million left at July 2018. There are grounds for being disappointed in the slow growth of revenues in past years. But the webcast on the latest results said commercial orders from the new mystery buyer are in place from January 2019. You will have to make your own mind up whether a projected �7.4 million cash balance at July 2018 will be enough to see them through to profitability. I for one believe it will be.

Some European retailers are starting to take pre-orders of the new 4K G-Sync HDR gaming monitors from Asus and Acer, making their April release ever more likely. As expected, however, they�re not going to come cheap, with pre-order pricing topping $3,000. Eek. Looks like most of us won�t be able to afford a G-Sync HDR panel, but here are the best gaming monitors you might actually be able to buy. We�ve been demoed, and had hands-on time, with Asus and Acer�s G-Sync HDR monitors since CES last January, but they�ve taken their own sweet time releasing them to the public. But with pre-orders now live it won�t be long before you can auction off your first-born child and buy one yourself. The problem has been that the AU Optronics IPS-a-like AHVA HDR panels (ooh, I do like a good acronym...) didn�t go into genuine production until December of 2017, at the earliest. So all the G-Sync HDR screens we have seen have just been built using prototype panels. Generally good prototype panels, but still not mass production screens. And, because they�re brand new, high performance displays, they�re not cheap. The current listings for the Asus ROG PG27UQ have it starting at �2,442 ($3,022 / �2,129) and going up to �2,919 ($3,613 / �2,545), while the Acer Predator X27 has appeared on Komplett in Denmark for 18,495DKK ($3,073 / �2,164). https://www.pcgamesn.com/nvidia-g-sync-hdr-pricing

On reflection, and relistening to the webcast, I think the key point is that Nanoco now has to focus on delivering contracts in place. ME said Nanoco are on track to complete the new factory by late summer and commercial supply of the new nano material starts in January with subsequent contracted sales volumes in place. On displays he says that with AUO Nanoco have 8 programmes moving through to commercialisation (and this board has noted evidence of the first couple of these coming on sale to consumers). So further fundraising only seems necessary if (i) there are insufficient funds to get to Jan 2019 - which does not seem to be the case; (ii) the rate of sales of CFQD by Jan 2019 is insufficient to cover costs - which seems unlikely; or (iii) there is slippage in the new contract - unlikely provided Nanoco delivers. I shall be looking for evidence that the contracts in place are being delivered and Tuesdays announcement and webcast are reassuring on that.

No tv sales in 2018 disappointing. But monitors going on sale soon and sales in early 2019 of new nano materials. Not news. But on course for delivery. May feel more positive by end of analysts meeting.

Getting to cash flow positive will transform Nanoco prospects by removing the need for further dilution. I had thought that would come with the launch of new gaming machines. But now big displays are in main production I suspect the announcement on 10 April will cover post period developments and say enough to demonstrate cash flow even is imminent. Sceptics will want to await customer reviews of the big displays. After that the upside is tremendous. The need to keep up the research and development is clear. But there is likely to be enough for that and a dividend in the next couple of years.

Two things struck me yesterday. In the morning I saw the rumour that Apple developing MicroLED tech at secret facility, likely to debut in Apple Watch http://appleinsider.com/articles/18/03/19/apple-developing-microled-tech-at-secret-facility-likely-to-debut-in-apple-watch To do that Apple will need to get CFQDs from somewhere. I thought they must be Nanoco's mystery buyer. But later in the day ME indicated the first contract was for driverless cars. So there is surely another big contract from Apple to be competed for. Apple seems to have a choice seems to be between Nanosys and Nanoco and given suspicions of a link between Nanosys and Samsung we must have a good chance. Second, in yesterdays interview, I am sure that ME said the big display screens would be launched in Q2 and were in mass production. If that is correct then significant quantities of CFQD must be being sent to AUO now. And MEs confidence Nanoco that it has enough cash to get to cash breakeven is understandable. I expect we will learn more on 10 April.

The recruitment drive may reflect the need for more staff to produce the new material for the unnamed American company. The recruitment process can take 2-3 months and, if the successful candidates are in work, it can take another 3 months for them to arrive in post. So the current adverts may result in staff arriving in Sept which may well be needed for commercial supply to begin early 2019. If so, nothing about the current level of production of CFQDs can be inferred from the recruitment.drive.

Samsung has included facial recognition in its Galaxy S9 mobile due out in the next couple of weeks. Will help drive increased demand for VCSEL wafers. http://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/samsung-galaxy-s9

Hothardware.com reckons gaming cards are in short supply at the moment for two reasons. First smart phones are using the same type of memory which is in short supply. Second crypto currency miners are using large numbers of graphics cards. This is unlikely to help the launch of new gaming monitors and is out of Nanoco's hands. We may see TV displays with Nanoco dots before gaming monitors. https://hothardware.com/news/nvidia-graphics-card-shortage-to-continue-through-q3-2018

Looking for the new material flagged up by Screenlearner it strikes me the structure of the website has become outdated, possibly misleading. The four headings of "what we do" have been there for years: displays, lighting, solar and bio-imaging. Neither the contract with new mystery american company nor the careware contract comes comfortably under any of these headings. I think there are now three main activities that will generate revenues over the next few years: producing cadmium free quantum dots (in Runcorn) to sell for use in displays, lighting and other products such as bandages and bioimaging; producing novel nano-particles (in Runcorn) for advanced electronic devices; and licensing the use of Nanoco's technology so others can produce CFQDs (in Korea and,perhaps, in future Germany) in return for licensing fees and royalties.

The new presentation was given in Korea on 9 February a few hours after the RNS announcing the US listed co dealor manufacturing expansion. Given the need to sign the presentation of in advance it is understandable its not on the slides. Nanoco's position on solar is that it is divesting. At present the industry is heavily invested in producing silicon panels. Other technology using compound semiconductors is coming along that holds out the prospect of a step changes in efficiencies ( http://www.iqep.com/markets/solar/ ). Given Nanoco's shortage of cash they are probably right to leave solar on the sidelines for now.