Nanoco FY14 Loss Widens On Higher Costs, Lower Revenues; Stock Down - Update

(RTTNews) - Nanoco Group Plc's (NANO.L) shares dropped around 6 percent in London trading after the maker of semiconductor materials used in LCD displays reported Tuesday wider annual loss, reflecting higher payroll costs, commercialization expenses and a fall in revenues.

For the twelve months to July, pre-tax loss totaled 9.06 million pounds, wider than loss of 5.04 million pounds a year earlier. The company noted that the higher payroll and other operational spend was associated with commercialising its technology in the display market.

After-tax loss widened to 7.81 million pounds or 3.65 pence per share, from a loss of 4.12 million pounds or 2 pence per share a year earlier. Adjusted basic loss per share was 3.38 pence, compared to 1.58 pence a year ago.

The adjusted operating loss for the year was 8.68 million pounds, wider than prior year's loss of 4.45 million pounds.

Total research and development spend, which primarily includes the employment costs of technical staff, increased by 1.11 million pounds to 5.18 million pounds.

Annual revenues plunged to 1.43 million pounds from 3.93 million pounds a year earlier. According to the firm, part of the revenue reduction was due to the absence of prior year's $1 million received in 2013 from Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) which was paid following the signing of the licence agreement in January 2013.

Cash, cash equivalents and deposits at the year-end were 12.18 million pounds, compared to 9.94 million pounds last year.

The company did not propose any dividend.

Looking ahead, Anthony Clinch, Nanoco's Chairman, said, "Dow's recent announcement that it would begin construction of the world's first large-scale cadmium-free quantum dot manufacturing plant using our technology marked a major milestone in the commercialisation of our quantum dots, which have the compelling competitive advantage of being cadmium-free. Commercialisation of our technology in the display market remains our primary focus but we also continue to make significant progress in all applications."

In late September, Nanoco's shares surged around 25 percent in London trading after the manufacturer of cadmium-free quantum dots and other nanomaterials announced that it will receive a milestone payment from its global licensing partner Dow Chemical, with Dow starting construction of the world's first large-scale, cadmium-free quantum dot manufacturing plant in South Korea, reflecting customer demand for Nanoco quantum dots.

"We look forward with confidence to the year ahead, during which time we expect to announce further material progress," Clinch added.

In London, Nanoco shares were losing 7.50 pence or 6.12 percent, and trading at 115 pence.