Full year losses widen at Directa Plus

Graphene-based products producer and supplier Directa Plus announced its full year results for the year to 31 December on Friday, with revenue from graphene sales increasing by 89% to €0.74m.

The AIM-traded firm made an EBITDA loss for the year of €3.7m, widening from €2.7m, while its adjusted EBITDA loss for the year widened to €2.4m from €0.8m.

Its loss after tax for the year increased to €6.4m from €4.4m.

The company’s adjusted loss after tax for the year widened to €4.1m from €1.7m in 2015.

Directa Plus was admitted to AIM on 27 May during the period, successfully raising £12.8m gross at 75p per share.

It reported a non-cash cost of the embedded derivative associated with its convertible loan as being €1.04m, widening from €0.71m year-on-year.

At 31 December, the company held cash and cash equivalents of €10.6m, a significant rise from €2.0m at the end of 2015.

“This was a significant year for Directa Plus because of the progress we made throughout the period,” said chief executive officer Giulio Cesareo.

“We gained new customers and those customers who we have been working with closely over the past year launched products with G+ inside them that were well received by the consumer.

“The year was also significant because we secured ourselves financially through our listing on AIM.”

Cesareo said the monies raised were enabling the company to capitalise on the pipeline of commercial opportunities that it was exploring with existing and potential partners, and the raised profile through the IPO had also brought “significant opportunities” to the firm from across the globe.

“Directa Plus has entered 2017 with increased engagement with current and new customers and continues to attract interest from companies worldwide.

“Specifically, we expect the textiles segment to feature prominently this year.

“Colmar has launched its second collection of G+ clothing and we are in advanced discussions with some of the world's largest clothing brands to incorporate our G+ products into their new range of clothing.”

The board anticipated working with those new customers in the current year to test and produce new enhanced clothing, Cesareo explained, but revenues generated from those were expected to ramp up only when the new products were launched into the mass market in 2018 and beyond.

“We also anticipate the environmental segment to be active during the year as we see increased interest from Europe, Middle East and USA for our Grafysorber product.

“Directa began 2017 with much greater capability than a year ago.

“2016 was a year of intense and focused learning resulting in improved development and engineering capability; and much deeper market knowledge.”

In 2017, the board was planning to build on those foundations to allow the company to improve production processes, further develop quality control procedures, further develop its patent families and more rapidly assess market opportunities, Cesareo commented.

“Accordingly, in light of the significant opportunities and the building momentum within the business, the board feels confident that the group is well positioned to capture growth within its target markets, principally environmental and textiles, and continues to look to the future with optimism.”