Ilika (IKA) , a developer of solid state batteries, issued a trading and operational update on its Stereax and Goliath product lines ahead of its interim results, due in January 2025.
During the period, Ilika continued to develop and advance commercial deployment of its Stereax and Goliath solid state batteries (SSBs). Stereax batteries are miniature SSBs intended for active implantable medical devices (AIMDs) and wireless sensors. In contrast, Goliath batteries are large-format SSBs, designed for electric vehicles and consumer appliances.
Regarding operational progress, Ilika confirmed in July 2024 that Cirtec Medical had mostly completed installation of IKA's equipment in its Massachusetts facility for production of Stereax batteries. Since then, the focus has been on commissioning and running trial batches to fully qualify the Stereax manufacturing process in readiness for commencing initial production runs. These runs are expected to deliver commercial samples of IKA's M300 battery in 2025.
The Goliath programme also made good progress, with highlights being technical verification by 3rd party testing, active discussions with customers, and commencement of commercial validation. Additionally, Ilika shipped its first batch of Goliath P1 prototype batteries to a Tier-1 customer and released a set of 3rd party-validated safety data, demonstrating significant improvements relative to commercially available EV batteries.
Financially, Ilika expects revenues of £1.0m for the 6 months to October 31, 2024, compared to £1.3m a year ago. The lower figure is attributed to the timing of grant funded projects. EBITDA loss is expected to remain flat at £1.9m for the period. Cash and cash eq at period-end was £10.1m. Full-year guidance remained unchanged. IKA's interim results are expected on January 21, 2025.
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Ilika issues a positive trading update, detailing significant development and commercial progress across its solid state battery product lines in H2. While financial performance is expected to remain largely flat for the half, IKA is nearing commercial deployment, which should materially boost revenues given positive preliminary data so far.
Ilika and partner Cirtec continue to promote Stereax for the growing range of AIMDs being deployed, working closely with a portfolio of 21 customers to support their launch schedules under a 10-year licensing and technology transfer agreement that Ilika and Cirtec signed in August 2023.
The integration of Stereax batteries into sub-assemblies manufactured by Cirtec can offer MedTech customers in particular a more complete solution, creating a lower-cost route to market. Sales of Stereax batteries will begin to ramp in 2025.
Likewise, Goliath has demonstrated significant advantages over traditional EV batteries, including reduced EV weight, lower cost, and longer range, which should appeal to western OEMs seeking to remain competitive vs cheaper Chinese imports.
The Goliath P1 prototype continues to make good progress, being supported by a £8.2m grant by the Faraday Battery Challenge in collaboration with BMW and Fortescue Future Industries. The P1 uses electrodes with high silicon content.
For Goliath, Ilika is already trialing production equipment at vendor sites and its pilot facility in the UK in preparation for scale-up. This is supported by the £2.7m-grant enabled SiSTEM project where Ilika is collaborating with Mpac, UKBIC and Tata Sons' subsidiary Agratas.
Ilika continues to report close interaction with global automotive OEMs, including sharing of Goliath prototypes for evaluation, as a precursor to large-scale manufacturing through licensing. IKA is also looking at non-automotive uses for Goliath, which are lower-volume and higher-margin.
With £10.1m in cash at period-end, Ilika is well-funded to advance the commercial rollout of Stereax and Goliath.
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