Shares in Nanoco Group jumped 8% to a 19.8p high in early trading after the quantum dot maker confirmed it had fulfilled its first-ever commercial production order.
The company said it completed shipments of two different first generation materials for use in infra-red sensing applications in electronic devices.”
The news followed the company’s assertion when it published its FY results last month that it was preparing to move from “an R&D first mover to a commercial producer” and followed the company’s current board successfully seeing off an attempted boardroom coup by rebel shareholders following its $150m win in litigation with electronics giant Samsung.
“Today’s announcement records a critical milestone in Nanoco’s evolution from an R&D first mover to an electronics materials production company,” said chief executive Brian Tenner. “With our customers’ global reach and ambitions for this technology, we expect initial low volume demand to increase gradually due to more end users and a more diverse range of applications.
“We have now delivered all of the goals set for CY23, winning the IP litigation and entering commercial production. Through careful use of the retained funds from the IP litigation, we will continue our leading edge R&D, our efforts to deliver further value from our validated IP portfolio, and continued commercial production of high quality nanomaterials from our Runcorn facility.
“Following the intended return of capital in 2024, the Board is confident that growing interest and opportunities for sensing materials and the potential for leveraging the Group’s IP portfolio will deliver increases in shareholder value in the medium term.”
It had indicated at the time of its results last month that the first use of its quantum dots would be for low-volume applications, with this announcement confirming those expectations and supporting existing revenue guidance for 2024.
Nanoco added that it anticipates its second generation materials “will achieve even higher levels of performance and secure Nanoco’s pipeline of product development for a number of years to come” and that “the planned retained funds from the Samsung litigation have allowed Nanoco to enter global electronics supply chains as a robust partner whilst also enabling the accelerated development of new leading edge materials..
