Versarien reports widened loss while focusing on commercialization

Versarien has announced a widening loss in the first half of its current financial year.

The materials company's pretax loss widened to GBP 2.1 million (around $2.8 million USD) in the six months to the end of September from GBP 732,000 (about $982,000 USD) loss a year earlier, as revenue dropped by 16% to GBP 4.4 million from GBP 5.2 million.

Versarien explained it has incurred exceptional costs in the period of GBP 333,000, which mostly related to expansion into China and the US.

By division, the Graphene & Plastic Products unit delivered a 34% reduction in revenue to GBP 1.9 million, while revenue in the Hard Wear & Metallic Products advanced by 3.7% to GBP 2.5 million.

"The focus remains on our graphene commercialization strategy and we are now actively working on 40 mainstream projects with our commercial partners, have a further 24 projects underway and active research ongoing on another 17. We continue to focus on the projects most likely to produce near-term significant revenue streams," said Chief Executive Neill Ricketts.