LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Solid-state battery technology company Ilika's revenue rose slightly as it gained intellectual property patents in China and Europe and entered into discussions with potential licensees.
Revenue increased slightly to £329,000 for the six months ended 31 October 2016, from £254,000 for the same period last year, with the loss per share remaining flat at 3p.

It was granted patents in China for its process to produce to solid state-batteries, and in Europe for its high-throughput vapour synthesis platform.

In July 2016, Ilika confirmed the grant in China for its patent application supporting solid-state batteries jointly filed with Toyota Motor Company on 21 July 2011. This notice followed the successful British grant in May 2014 and the European grant in July 2015.

The company was also awarded a £365,000 grant to develop protected anodes for lithium sulphur batteries

Ilika is currently in discussions with potential solid-state battery licencees, particularly in the medical and industrial sectors.

Its order book and sales pipeline have been reinforced with potentially three new grants - two of which involve solid state battery integration programmes, amounting to revenue of £1.4m over two years - and one new commercially-funded materials development programme worth over $1m over 12 months. Theses programmes will be carried out with original equipment manufacturers and are expected to start this year.

Since the end of the period, the company has received notices of allowance in the US for two patent applications covering its vapour deposition process for solid state battery materials and metal oxide supports for fuel cell catalysts.

Chief executive Graeme Purdy, said: "In the first half of the year we have intensified commercial discussions with potential solid-state battery licensees, further strengthened our intellectual portfolio and augmented our materials discovery programmes."

The AIM-listed company had a net cash inflow £4.1m at the end of October, up from £1.5m last year. It also has a cash balance of £7.1m, up from 4.5m, which included £5.8m raised in a share placing during the period.

During the six months, the company shipped evaluation volumes of its Stereax M250 batteries to potential original equipment manufacturing partners and refined its solid-state battery development roadmap with improved temperature, capacity and miniaturisation requirements.

Shares in Ilika were up 1.05% 43.45p at 1245 GMT.

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