Versarien plc (LON:VRS), the advanced materials engineering group, has today provided an update on current trading ahead of the release of the Company’s interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2017.
Trading across all parts of the Group has been encouraging since the start of the financial year on 1 April 2017. The Company’s more mature business, Total Carbide Ltd continues to make progress in the aerospace sector following on from the order announced on 7 September 2017, partly offsetting its historic reliance on the oil and gas sector.
The level of interest being expressed in Versarien’s graphene continues at record levels. In particular, the Group is currently in advanced negotiations with two of the world’s largest consumer goods groups and anticipates receipt of the first purchase order imminently. The expected collaboration with one or both of these groups will be to work together on research, development and testing of Versarien’s proprietary Nanene few layer graphene nano-platelets in polymer structures.
Additional negotiations are being held with a number of multinational companies in sectors as diverse as aerospace, automotive, packaging and consumer goods with a view to collaborating on the commercialisation of graphene enhanced products. The Company looks forward to making further announcements on these as appropriate.
The Company is today announcing separately the intention to raise approximately £1.2 million through an institutional placing by WH Ireland, in conjunction with an offer via PrimaryBid (together the “Fundraising”). The proceeds of the Fundraising will be used to purchase capital equipment and provide working capital to enable the various existing and prospective graphene related collaborations to be progressed. The intended capital equipment purchases are designed to enable the Company to increase the production capacity of its proprietary Nanene few layer graphene nano-platelets by a factor of approximately ten.
Notice of Results
The Company will be announcing its interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2017 on Wednesday 29 November.
The Company will be hosting an analyst briefing on the morning of the results at 9:30 a.m. in the City of London. Analysts who would like to attend the briefing, or register interest in the Company, should contact Heather Armstrong at IFC Advisory Ltd on heather.armstrong@investor-focus.co.uk or on 020 7652 9781.
Neill Ricketts, CEO of Versarien, commented: “We are delighted with the progress that the Group is making, particularly in our graphene related activities, where we are seeing an accelerating level of interest from multinational companies in a variety of sectors wishing to collaborate with Versarien.
“The fund raising we are separately announcing today will enable us to invest in the capital equipment to scale up graphene production as we continue to sign collaboration agreements with global OEMs.
“We look forward to making further announcements regarding these collaborations in due course and provide further updates at the time of the release of our interim results.”
