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John Shaw: “We’re in a great position to return to higher growth this year, with higher gross profit margins.”

Just a matter of being patient a few more months.

Sorry, make that 10% royalties. In a few years Ilika will be receiving circa $50m per annum from Stereax in the USA alone. Not a bad side line to have whilst the bigger Goliath battery progresses towards commercialisation.

Cirtec have revenue of over $500m per annum. Great partner for Ilika’s Stereax mm batteries.

Ilika gets 8% of royalties

They have a large very prominent stand right on the main entrance. See page 15 of program. In the presence of other leading companies like Medtronic, Boston Scientific, and Abbott.

https://www.neuromodulation.org/uploads/1/4/5/5/145560650/nans25_program_book_final_web-compressed.pdf

Ilika's John Tinson is showcasing Stereax #solidstatebatteries for #medicalimplants. #neuromodulation at the premier neuromodulation conference in Orlando Jan. 30 - Feb. 1.

Cirtec Medical post: From ASICs design and development to micro solid state battery manufacturing with our partner Ilika, see our complete neuromodulation solutions at NANS 2025. Connect with Cirtec at Booth #303

AJP it certainly would but I think we need to be realistic about the directors spending power. They run a tight ship on expenditure and I don’t think the salaries are that high (which is a good thing). Also the directors already hold a lot of shares!

Thinking back to the Peter Nieuwenhuizen interview he talks about needing maturity in expectations of small companies like Itaconix. I know we all see enormous potential and an incredible future for Itaconix but in 2024 they pulled in 6.5m revenue so they are still early in their development. That’s what makes them such a tempting investment because they have plans to grow revenue 15 fold and with that the share price should follow suit.

It has been a frustrating ride to date but I think that’s because the share price rose ridiculously high a few years ago and caught out a number of investors including myself. If the share price does drift in the meantime I am ok with that as I will use it as an opportunity to buy, because I do believe take off will occur sometime this year.

On a more positive note I think there is a great opportunity for LTIs to use their knowledge of what is coming to their advantage. Assuming you believe the vast body of evidence out there that 2025 is likely to be a stellar year for Itaconix, and assuming that the next trading update is sometime in April, then if the share price continues to drift until then, the logical thing is to top up end of March. If there is good news before then that is also fine, as LTIs already have a core holding.

Just my opinion, please DYOR.

Yes very frustrating. All the elements are there but we are just missing a catalyst for share price growth which is why the share price continues to drift.

There are lots of things which could act as a catalyst:

Trading guidance exceeded - positive surprises are always welcomed by the market.

News of a significant partnership. Itaconix has announced the SPARX partnership but we don’t know what this will translate into in terms of revenue yet.

Coverage by a new broker. This is limited due to the size of the company.

Increased target price by broker.

New legislation in the company’s favour - always possible in Europe.

Being an ‘in-trend’ investment sector.

News of a take-over / buy out.

A technological break through.

I’m sure you can think of others but right now we don’t have any of the above and so despite having some phenomenal products, leading IP, strong business growth, strong investment, the share price is drifting.

Hopefully the April trading update, which will include the 2025 outlook, will provide a strong forecast for revenue and gross margin which will provide that missing catalyst.

Wow just seen that buy at 8.36am. Wish that was me!

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/stock/IKA/ilika-plc/company-page

Hi Elsol, I see both Itaconix and the other company as good long term investments for 2025 and my message was not about moving money from one to the other. It was just an opportunity I recognised and shared with Dougerboy (as he has with me before), and since my message last week, the other company has gone up 25%.

Anyway back to Itaconix, it is always hard to know when to buy, but I see the risks as greatly diminished in light of the revelation about raw material inventories. IMO we can largely ignore the noise over tariffs as it sounds like they have ample stock for this year and possible a good deal of next year. It also now explains why H2 spend was greater than expected and clearly is money well spent. It would have been helpful to have this info within last week’s trading update but hey ho.

I definitely agree you want to have skin in the game here, as whilst on the one hand the price might drift until the April trading update, but on the other hand there might be some unexpected news released before then. It was a good interview indeed. Usually in investing a layered approach is best, spreading buys over time, but hopefully we are on a countdown to the share price finally lifting off again, so I heed your warning.

Thanks AJP I’ve bookmarked that page as it seems to be the only accurate one.

Topped up on the basis that JS said they had enough cash for 2025 and 2026 and the raw material stock they have built up which is good insurance. Be interesting to see whether they maintain the level of purchases this year in anticipation of achieving $10m revenues in 2025.

Late afternoon I purchased some ITX shares. Two odd things I noticed:

1. The purchase is not showing here or on Aquis.

2. The price I got (152p) was lower than the price I was quoted a couple of hours earlier, despite a moderate sized buy of £4,988 at 154.80p at 14:54 occurring in-between quotes. I would have expected the price to be higher not lower.

Not sure if it’s just a glitch in the system that enabled me to buy cheaper than expected or maybe there’s a sell occurring in the background that hasn’t completed. Be interested to see what transactions show up tomorrow. Hope I’ve not miss-timed my buy.

If you want to know what’s coming this year at Ilika, this video sums it up nicely!

http://ow.ly/5Hy6105Xprg

Really a very insightful interview and I can see why people are watching it a couple of times over. For me the most interesting segment is at 39 minutes when talking about how can small companies scale up?

Peter said “If you’re a small company and you need to build a 50m, a 100m, a 200m plant, this probably something that you’re not able to do”.

My ears pricked up at this as this is something we know Itaconix will presumably need to do if they are to fulfil John Shaw’s aim of getting to be a 100m company around 5 years from now. Recently Dougerboy and myself agreed that it is a question that needs asking at the next meet the investor event.

My reading into this, is that if and when, the company needs to scale up (they are talking about a tenfold increase), they will need to raise further investment funds. If I had to guess when, I would guess 2026 when the company turns cash positive. Turning cash positive won’t be enough to fund the level of scaling up that will be required to go from being a 10m to a 100m plant but it should be enough to secure the next round of investment. It would be very helpful for current and potential investors to see a 5 year roadmap from the company.

Ilika’s closest comparable SSB peer is Taiwan-based ProLogium, the only commercial prototype supplier of a ceramic-oxide SSB. ProLogium have secured strategic investment from Mercedes and SoftBank and is estimated to be valued in the double-digit billions.

If (and when IMO) Ilika secures a commercial partner for its Goliath battery, expect the share price to rocket. I believe we are likely to see this partnership before the end of 2025.

GLA and DYOR

This update is from Hybridan

“Significant progress has been made with both Stereax and the Goliath battery brands. Stereax is a miniature solid-state battery (SSB) for powering medical devices and industrial wireless sensors in specialist environments. It should commence revenues in 2025 following the licensing agreement Cirtec. Goliath is a large-format solid state cell for electric vehicles (EVs) and compact cordless appliances. It has passed safety and performance development milestones and is progressing towards the completion of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) by the end of 2025. This should underpin licensing opportunities. After raising £2.3m the Cash is £10.1m, which supports the Stereax and Goliath roadmaps to commercialisation.”

Hi Foolsgold. I think that’s somewhat of an exaggeration but you and others are entitled to your opinion. Rather than focusing on my ‘opinion/recommendation’ I do suggest reading what I write as I always provide a clear and reasoned narrative. Moving forward I will not record an “opinion / recommendation” and only provide commentary. Today I think I have provided a fair commentary on Itaconix and provided valuable information from the broker which was not provided in the RNS.

It is not our job to market Itaconix, that is the company’s responsibility. I also think it is extremely dangerous to only want to hear positive commentary. There are many positive reasons to be invested in Itaconix which is why I am here, but there are also issues to be aware of. If freedom of expression is not allowed on this board then it will loose all value.

Elsol - it is ok to be invested in more than 1 stock!

And I don’t know why you continue to reference my recommendations. First of all it is any poster’s right to put whatever recommendation they see fit. Second my recommendations last year were bang on the money. So please can we move on.

Apologies in advance for this PM to Dougerboy but no other way to communicate. After our successful sharing of share tips a couple of years ago I thought you might like to take a look at Ilika if you aren’t already invested there. They’ve also just had their trading update and 2025 looks like being a transformational year and the brokers are anticipating a “substantial revaluation” during this year. Lots more on the Ilika share chat page. Maybe see you over there. Good luck and DYOR.

As others have alluded to further patience will be needed. The next update around April feels a long way away but I guess it’s only 2 - 3 months. Hopefully they will arrange a meet the investor event as there are a lot of questions investors want to ask.

My number 1 question based on the Canaccord revenue forecast of $9.6m in 2025 and $13.3m in 2026 is how does the company plan to get to $100m in 5 years time?

JS seems quite cautious about the macro economic political situation the company is now in. It must be hard for them to plan with the current tariff bingo - 0%, 10%, 25% pick a new number each morning!