Transense Technology wins General Electric sensor deal

Transense Technology has signed a licensing agreement for its Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) sensor with General Electric, with the US colossus agreeing to pay an upfront fee plus a perpetual royalty on the sale of each unit that uses the technology.

In a year-end update Transense said revenue growth from its Translogik tyre-management arm continued to be held back by tough mining market conditions but that results for the year to 30 June would meet the board's revised targets, with revenues of roughly £2m and closing cash balances of £3.6m.

Directors of the AIM-listed company said they plan to propose a capital restructuring at the annual shareholder meeting later the year, having spoken to advisers about ways of eliminating the accumulated deficit on reserves that at the end of December stood at £21.24m.

Chief executive Graham Storey said the signing of the GE licensing agreement was "a very significant development" a year after a first agreement was made.

GE will make a non-refundable payment to Transense of $0.5m on signing and will pay a further non-refundable $0.25m subject to SAW passing various tests conducted by GE over the next 12 months at the latest, if not the licence will terminate.

"As the licence to GE is both non-exclusive and is valid for only a relatively narrow field of use it clearly benchmarks the overall value of the company's IP portfolio," Storey added. "We continue to work with other potential partners to deploy our SAW technology in the commercial environment."

Shares in Transense were up 49% to 1.49p just before midday on Monday, their highest level since December.