Ilika Plc Regulatory News (IKA)

Ilika plc

("Ilika")

Trading Update

Ilika (AIM: IKA), the advanced cleantech materials discovery company, announces substantial growth in joint development and contract research revenues in the financial year ended 30 April 2012.

Total revenues (including other grant income) increased to approximately £2.3 million, 21% ahead of the previous year's total revenues (2011: £1.90m).Turnover from operations increased to approximately £2.0 million, 30% ahead of the previous year (2011: £1.54m). 

Earnings before Interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and share based payment charge improved slightly compared with last year's reported loss of £1.81 million and losses before tax for the year improved compared with last year's reported loss of £3.15m.

Cash balances total £5.3m at 30 April 2012, reflecting the placing announced on 4 April 2012 which raised £4.6m after expenses.

All 2012 figures are unaudited.

Commenting on these results, Graeme Purdy, Ilika's Chief Executive, said: "We are pleased with the significant progress made in the development of products with our partners. Specific examples include:

1) One of our manufacturing partners, Sigma Aldrich, has been successful in manufacturing gram scale quantities of hydrogen storage materials based on our patented formulation and is undertaking pre-marketing activities to gauge commercial demand.

2) An industrially scalable production route has been developed in our fuel cell programme with ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Institute in Taiwan), which is supported by the Carbon Trust, to deliver a cheaper fuel cell with a substantially reduced requirement for precious metals. Initial samples are being evaluated by an independent testing organisation for use in an automotive duty cycle.

3) Following our successful fund raising in April, we are further developing our proprietary solid state battery technology, co-developed with Toyota, with the aim of initially commercialising the technology for man portable defence applications.

"Earlier this month we announced the successful grant of a patent covering our core materials synthesis technology in the US and we are pleased to announce we have now also received notice of grant in Canada and Japan. The combination of our internationally recognised IP and product development with our partners provides us significant confidence for the future. Furthermore, our sales pipeline for 2013 is being strengthened both by our US business development efforts, where we are starting to replicate what we achieved in Japan, and also by the recent appointment of a business development director in Germany. "

Ilika expects to announce its audited full year results for the year ended 30 April 2012 on or around 19 July 2012.

ABOUT ILIKA

Ilika is an advanced materials company which accelerates the discovery of new and patentable materials using its unique high throughput technologies (''HTT'') process for identified end uses in the energy, electronics and biomedical sectors. This process enables hundreds of scalable materials to be made in a single, automated operation and subsequently tested for key properties.

Traditionally, materials development has been a slow and arduous task, with manual, sequential methods used to make samples of material that are then tested for suitability. On average, it takes between 7 and 10 years to move from an initial discovery through to the first commercial prototype. Experiments carried out by the Company can be executed 10 to 100 times faster than using traditional techniques.

The Company focuses on three principal sectors and has a number of active development programmes addressing markets within each sector:

Energy - developing innovative new materials for Lithium-ion batteries for vehicles for Toyota; developing high capacity hydrogen storage materials with Shell Hydrogen and Johnson Matthey through joint development programmes; developing cheaper alternatives to Platinum electrodes for use in fuel cells through a grant-funded project with the Carbon Trust; developing new materials for use in fuel cells for the transport sector for a major vehicle manufacturer; and carrying out in-house research on film photovoltaic solar cells.

Electronics - developing lead-free piezoelectric materials through a joint development programme with CeramTec; developing phase change memory materials for high capacity memory chips and high-performing electronic materials for a multi-national manufacturer.

Biomedical - developing polymers to enable the filtering of somatic stem cells from blood with a major global supplier of filters; it has been selling its Cryoskin and Myskin products for the treatment of burns and wounds in the UK through a specialist distributor and intends to commence clinical trials of its corneal bandage candidate.

The Group's commercialisation strategy is to enter into joint development or licensing agreements with large multinational companies which are seeking to commercialise products developed using the intellectual property created through jointly-funded programmes. Current commercialisation partners include large multinational companies such as Toyota, Shell, Johnson Matthey and CeramTec. The Company generates revenues from three sources: licensing and milestone payments from joint development programmes; fee for service from contract research projects; and from sales of Cryoskin and Myskin.