Tirupati Graphite plc (LON:TGR), the fully integrated, revenue generating, specialist graphite producer and graphene and advanced materials developer, has announced that its audited results for the year ended 31 March 2021 are expected to be published on or before 17 September 2021.
In the interim, the Company is pleased to announce unaudited trading results of its operations during the period 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021. In this period, the 3,000 tpa Sahamamy facility which had declared commercial operations from January 2020, was in production while its first 9,000 tpa facility at Vatomina was under construction:
| Particulars | Units | YoY Change | FY 2020-21 | FY 2019-20 |
| Mining & Processing costs | £ | +10% | 304,975 | 277,644 |
| Human Resources costs | £ | +41% | 228,731 | 161,480 |
| Logistics utilities & plant admin costs | £ | -20% | 52,784 | 65,601 |
| (Increase) / Decrease in inventory of inputs | £ | +6% | (98,407) | (92,726) |
| Total Costs of Production | £ | 488,083 | 411,899 | |
| Total Production | MT | + 30% | 1,718 | 1,318 |
| Cost per MT of Production | £ | 284 | 313 | |
| Total Sales Volume | MT | +54% | 1,857 | 1,206 |
| Total Revenues | £ | +42% | 1,123,426 | 793,577 |
| Average Selling price per MT of Production | US$ / £ per MT | -8% | 801 / 605 | 835 / 658 |
| Gross Profit | £ | +66 | 635,342 | 381,678 |
| Gross Margin on Sales | % | +9% | 57% | 48% |
| Increase in Gross Profit for the year | % | 66% | NA |
The Company notes that during the period under review:
· Despite the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic which effected the Company’s operations during a substantial part of the year, the Sahamamy facility remained operational throughout, although with related challenges which impacted on total capacity utilisation of the facility during certain periods;
· Within Inventories, there was a significant increase in inputs, stores and spares (+50% y-o-y), as the Company increased its inventories of inputs, stores and spares to mitigate against the longer procurement and logistics timeframes due to the impacts of the pandemic;
· Total Production during the year increased by 30% and Total Sales Volume increased by 54% over the previous year;
· Total Revenues increased by 42% from £0.79m to £1.12m;
· Realised Average Selling price per MT of graphite sold showed slight reduction which was attributable to reduced market prices in the first three quarters (i.e. April 2020-December 2020) due to impacts of the pandemic, and strengthening of sterling against the US$ during the year from c.US$1.24 to c.US$1.37;
· Notably, Gross Margin on Sales increased by 9% from 48% the previous year to 57%, in line with the Company’s expectations as production continues to increase;
· The Company remains on track and with its recent capital raise of £10 million in April 2021, is in a sound financial position to deliver on the current phase under its medium-term development plan which will see its production capacity in Madagascar increased up to 12,000 tpa in the immediate term and up to 30,000 tpa in the next financial year (see RNS dated 16 April 2021); and
· As previously noted, the acquisition of Tirupati Speciality Graphite Pvt Ltd (‘TSG’) is in the process of statutory approvals and we are not able to consolidate the financials of TSG until completion of the acquisition.
