Member Info for Smartinvestment

2023E £8m

2024E £10.5m

2025E £14.7m

“Valuation. We maintain our existing 12p target price, with plenty of upside to current levels as we see additional customer wins and new applications and formulas continuing to propel customer growth.”

It was the innovation section that most got my attention. In particular:

- Velafresh SAP80 superabsorbent - to be launched

- Velasoft BR300 repair damaged hair - to be launched

- $600m addressable market in composite materials (patent pending)

“We announced that we are extending our technology platform into potential uses in composite materials, and that we had filed a new patent application, which if granted would protect innovative intellectual property for expected applications in this new area. The extension of the Itaconix technology platform is part of our work to engage with potential customers to identify unmet needs that we can address with our plant-based solutions.

We estimate that a $600m per annum addressable market exists for potential Itaconix products based on this new technology; and although the usual steps remain to advance a new product to market, we are very excited that our plant-based solutions have the potential to address major customer needs which are not being fulfilled. The patent filing marked a significant milestone in our efforts to deliver safety and sustainability to new categories of consumer products, and product research based on this patent filing has now entered the next stage of commercial development.”

Totally agree Bod.

It will take time to put the £10m cash injection to full effect. What I’m looking for next week is how are they going to use the money and which of their diverse areas are seeing the most traction.

It’s a no risk update IMO and should be lots of positives to come out of the session with investors.

Hi AJP,

I don’t expect any other news before 5th June but you never know. As a minimum I would anticipate a statement to say how trading is progressing in 2023. Hopefully it will include some numbers but not guaranteed.

I find the “Investor meet Company” sessions much more

Illuminating that the bland RNS releases and they do tend to give us more of the detail behind the RNS. So I’m really looking forward to it.

All the best.

I have submitted a number of questions around:

1. The share consolidation

2. How the £10m funds raised will be used

3. Why have they appointed joint corporate brokers

4. When will break even / move to profitability be achieved by?

Disclosure: I am currently in a very happy mood following massive jumps in the US tech shares I hold. They are shares which I invested in for the same reasons I invested in Itaconix. The bear market for tech shares is finished. I firmly believe that Itaconix is going to make a big jump up on the next trading outlook. Itaconix is totally de-risked with £10m on the books. The days of worrying about funding over. It’s now time for Itaconix to spend the cash driving up revenues and launching the new products we have been talking about for years. I say we will double our share price by the 2023 full year trading update in January / February

If people are expecting a trading update soon they are going to be disappointed. Next update will be for H1 so July onwards

In terms of why?
See the 28th Feb RNS. Cannacord hold 9% of Itaconix shares following the £10m placement.

Yet another example of private investors being given the minimum information necessary to remain LSE compliant. Really infuriates me!

My issue with the share consolidation is that the company put it out there almost a year ago and then did nothing with it. It was supposed to help with US investment but now they’ve got the 10 million I presume it’s no longer required for the company. As a private investor it’s disappointing as I’d hoped it would generate new private investor interest in the states.

I increasingly get the feeling that Itaconix are not bothered about the share price as long as they have liquidity which the 10 million now gives them.

This morning I watched the famous Monty Python dead parrot sketch and for some reason it reminded me of the Itaconix share price.
I must admit it did make me question my steadfast loyalty to Itaconix and whether I have become blinkered.

February placing of £2.4m at 0.55p a share
April placing of £1m at 0.46p a share
What price will the next placing be? 0.37p??
This should have alarm bells ringing for every private investor

Miners are always high risk. Boom or bust

The fact the company thought 0.46p was a good price speaks volumes. If there were good news around the corner the company would have waited for that to land and then raise funds at that higher share price and give away less equity.

VAST happy to release RNS at 12.00pm so I wouldn’t go by the traditional 7.00am news release times

On the one hand I am surprised at the drift in share price since the £10m funds raise. Considering the very low cash burn rate now that the company is approaching break even, investors should realise that these funds are for more than just the day to day running of operations. They fuel the massive scaling up and remove IMO any investment risk during this scaling up period. Also £10m is a small amount of money compared to the revenue growth this will enable.

On the flip side I am not surprised because of the general negative market reaction to raising funds. Thankfully on this occasion I think the market has got it totally wrong and believe future trading updates will see impressive growth in revenue and share price. We are also moving back to a bull market for tech stocks which will move us from head winds to tail winds.

..we get closer to a RNS on the diamonds. These things take time but patience will win the day. Hoping RNS doesn’t land until after new tax year begins so I can top up my shares ISA

Oh definitely AJP.
Patience very much the key. I think I the current share price is a nonsense when they now have £10.5 cash but the market cap is just £33m. It looks like we will have to wait a little longer than I anticipated for the share price to start moving but once it does I think it will be impressive.

Whilst Itaconix was very successful raising funds through institutions it seems it was less successful with the open offer to qualifying shareholders:

“ the Company proposes to raise up to a further approximately £0.4 million by the issue of up to 7,760,852 New Ordinary Shares pursuant to an Open Offer to Qualifying Shareholders, also at the Issue Price (the Placing, Subscription and Open Offer, together the "Fundraising").”

Only 4,513,420 shares were bought by qualifying shareholders. So circa 58% of shareholders took up the offer. Whilst it is of little consequence to the £10.5m total raised it does suggest that 42% of existing shareholders are not currently impressed with the company’s performance.

If you were one of the investors who had formed out your portion of 10 million bucks to buy Itaconix shares at 5.1p, you would be topping up now the buy price is 5% lower?
Maybe the current share price is a reflection of last weeks market turmoil over interest rates and banks. Either way the current share price looks a very good entry point for investors and I can’t see it staying sub 5 pence for very long.