LONDON (Alliance News) - Applied Graphene Materials PLC said Friday its overall trading for the year to end-July has been broadly in line with its expectations, as it made solid progress operationally and established new customer relationships.
The speciality graphene materials producer said it had ended the year with net cash of approximately GBP8.5 million. Graphene is a pure carbon material that is very thin, at one atom thick, but also very strong and able to conduct heat and electricity efficiently.
During the second half it has spent "a significant amount of time" looking to improve the consistency and quality of graphene that it produces.
It has also continued to invest in infrastructure, more than doubling its headcount, which it said will lead to higher costs than previously expected in 2015 and 2016. However it remains confident that this will support the long-term growth of the business.
Since it announced its interim results, the company established a significant number of new customer relationships, it said, which has led to the ongoing supply of trial quantities and graphene dispersions. As the industry is at an "early stage of development", the company will continue to focus on sampling rather than supplying commercial quantities of graphene.
Applied Graphene Materials said it will release its full-year results on November 5.
Shares in Applied Graphene are untraded Friday; it closed at 395.55 pence Thursday.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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