Versarien (AIM: VRS) has completed the initial process with Innovate UK Loans, a wholly owned subsidiary of UK Research and Innovation, receiving £1.96m as a first installment.
The advanced materials engineering group was awarded a £5 million loan facility by Innovate UK Loans at the beginning of last month in support of Versarien's ‘G SCALE’ project.
The loan is intended to facilitate the production of sufficient quantities of graphene by Versarien to enable market supply of commercial quantities of graphene-enhanced materials.
The £5m will go towards a project code-named G SCALE, (an acronym for Graphene-Seat, Concrete, Arch, Leisure, Elastomer), and is designed to enable Versarien to significantly increase its manufacture of quality assured graphene, a previous statement had outlined.
The Company has now confirmed that the relevant security documentation was successfully completed and it has now received £1.96 million, being the first instalment of the Loan.
Shares in Versarien were trading 0.47% higher at 43.2p on Monday morning.
As announced on 1 July 2020, the Loan was to become available for drawdown in eight quarterly tranches, following the completion of normal commercial security arrangements.
As agreed, Version can drawdown the remaining instalments every three months over the next 21-month period while the loan attracts at an interest rate of 7.4% per annum.
Commenting on the £5 million loan facility, Neill Ricketts, CEO of Versarien, commented:
"We are delighted to have now completed the initial process with Innovate UK Loans. With the quarterly instalments underway we can now move forward with our plans to scale up our G SCALE related collaborations and look forward to providing updates on the project's progress in due course."
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