Ceres Power Holdings plc (LON: CWR.L), a world leading developer of the SteelCell®, a low cost, next generation fuel cell technology, announces its half-yearly report for the six months ended 31 December 2018.
Phil Caldwell, CEO of Ceres Power said:
“This has been another period of significant commercial and financial progress. Our Licence Agreements with both Robert Bosch and Weichai were key milestones and validate our strategy to secure initial license fees with major global OEM partners, with a view to generating royalties once products are launched. Both of these partnerships have the potential to transform Ceres and step change the scale of our business.
“Our work with Weichai will see the first EV bus with a Ceres-powered range extender demonstrated in China later this year, an exciting development with significant commercial potential. We are also field testing a new small-scale stationary power system with a significant OEM, in addition to progressing development work with Robert Bosch and our other partners.
“We enter the second half of the year with a strong cash position, having successfully raised £78 million in 2018, and good momentum thanks to the growing awareness of the role that fuel cells can play in the future energy mix. The interest in our technology and the wide-ranging applications it has in power, transport and heating is now gaining real traction. We are well placed to deliver on our growth potential.”
Financial Highlights
· Revenue and other income up 168% to £8.3m (H1 2017: £3.1m), driven by new licence fees
· Gross margin increased from 46% to 82% due to high margin licence fees
· Operating loss has halved from £6.2m to £3.0m
· Funded to cash flow breakeven: strong cash position of £78.4m at the period end (H1 2017: £13.2m)
Operational Highlights
· Strategic partnerships signed with Bosch and Weichai
· £30.5m contracted future revenues with significant license deals, leading to potential future royalties
· Field trials have begun with significant OEM of a first “go to market” multi-kW business-sector product
· Healthy pipeline with new partners at Evaluation stage
· 5th generation SteelCell® achieved key milestone of 60% net efficiency, twice that of conventional gas engine and greater than centralised megawatt-scale gas turbine
2019 Outlook
· Full year revenue and other operating income on track to more than double for fourth successive year to more than £15 million (2018: £7 million)
· On course to deliver target gross margins of greater than 50% due to our highly scalable licensing business model
· Demonstration of EV range extender concept with Weichai for its fuel cell electric vehicle (“FCEV”) bus programme expected mid-2019
· Fit out for our new manufacturing facility underway and on track for use by end of 2019. An £8m project with the creation of 60 new engineering roles in Surrey, UK
