Universal Matter GBR (formerly: Applied Graphene Materials) - Page 6

Applied Graphene Materials recently reported its intentions of raising capital to scale up its production facilities in a share sale. Now, the company confirmed raising of about £8.5m from a shares sale, which should help increase production.

Company representatives added that the fundraising followed a year of good progress, which included collaborations with international partners, and that its main focus remains on driving forward opportunities to win orders and become a leading graphene provider.

UK-based Applied Graphene Materials is collaborating with US paint company Sherwin-Williams Protective and Marine Coatings, and corrosion management operation TWI Limited, in a venture to develop graphene-based anti-corrosion paints.

The companies added that the scheme, co-funded by the Government’s innovation body, could have a major impact on corrosion, which is estimated to cost the UK economy about £10 billion every year in repairs on equipment used in the construction, petrochemical and transport sectors.

Applied Graphene Materials, producer of specialty graphene materials, has announced a share placing to raise £10.1 million to scale up its production facilities. AGM has conditionally raised £8.1 million (before expenses), through the placing of 4,628,571 New Ordinary Shares at 175p per share. It has also announced an Open Offer to raise up to £2m.

The company plans to ramp up production facilities to increase manufacturing capacity to six tonnes per year, and the funds will also be used to form collaborations and joint development activity with customers, including development of new intellectual property, fund the Group as it pursues production orders and finance the working capital requirements for at least twelve months.

A few weeks ago Applied Graphene Materials announced that its performance in the 2015 financial year (which ended on July 31) was slightly ahead of company expectations.

AGM now reported their final results - revenues were 41,000 GBP (up from 4,000 pounds) and the pretax loss was £4 million ($6.11 million USD) - up from a loss of £2.7 million in fiscal 2014. The company says that they significantly broadened its pipeline of identified collaboration opportunities, and provided over 120 evaluation samples to customers in more than 20 countries.

Applied Graphene Materials has entered into a joint development agreement with German lubricants and oils business Puralube Germany (which will be shortly changing its name to Puraglobe).

The UK-based Applied Graphene Materials announced that its performance in the 2015 financial year (which ended on July 31) was slightly ahead of company expectations.

AGM significantly broadened its pipeline of identified collaboration opportunities, and provided over 120 evaluation samples to customers in more than 20 countries. The growth in opportunities seems to be accelerating as the evaluation quantities provided in the Q4 was higher than in the previous nine months combined.

A collaborative Innovate UK project called Project Graphted that began on 1st April 2015 aims at evaluating Graphene’s potential as a transparent electrode when dispersed in a polymeric matrix. Graphted will be led by PolyPhotonix, a UK-based company that develops applications based on OLED lighting panels, and will include a 12 month feasibility study in which PolyPhotonix will be working in collaboration with Applied Graphene Materials and CPI (a UK-based R&D institute that helps companies develop and scale manufacturing processes).

The project seeks to provide proof of concept evidence that a Graphene-based electronic device can be successfully developed and fully categorised in terms of morphology and physical properties. If so, the approach holds potential to generate a range of electronic inks that can be utilised on a large scale. Application areas include OLEDs and organic photovoltaics (OPV).

The UK-based Applied Graphene Materials reports positive preliminary findings following independent performance testing on graphene-enhanced base oils produced by the group. The performance testing was undertaken by BfB Oil Research in Belgium.

Base oils are used in a many industries, like lubricating greases, motor oils and metal processing fluids. BfB's initial results demonstrate that low loading levels of the group's graphene nanoplatelets, within base oils, reduce friction and the wear of metal surfaces. This opens up the way to further development for commercial applications in high performance oils and greases.

The UK-based Applied Graphene Materials brought in independent coatings experts to conduct performance testing on graphene- reinforced polyurethane coatings and reported positive preliminary findings. 

While the test program is still ongoing, the initial results demonstrate that low loading levels of AGM's graphene nanoplatelets substantially enhance the scratch resistance and ultimate tensile strength of a polyurethane clearcoat, with minimal impact on transparency or colour.

Applied Graphene Materials announced their financial results for 2014. Pre-tax losses for the year ended in 31 January 2015 was £1.9 million, up from £1.2 million in the previous year. The increase is mostly due to AGM's increased invesetment in production, business infrastructure and new employees. AGM has about £6.6 million in cash as of the end of January 31.

AGM says that they are anticipating future growth and to support this new growth they had to increase expenses. The company remains confident of progress in 2015, and they see accelerated graphene sampling by customers. Production volume has been increased in past months. 90% of AGM’s ongoing engagements are with its three core target markets of advanced composites, coatings and functional fluids.