Caithness company set to benefit from Britain's 'Green Revolution'
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Specialist battery producer AMTE Power plc is reporting a strong financial position despite reporting pre-tax losses of almost £1.5 million for the last six months of 2020.
The Thurso based business, which now has the second largest battery cell manufacturing capacity in the UK at its Caithness factory, reported pre-tax losses of £1.46 million in the six months to December 31 2020.
However, the company reported these losses were in line with management expectations and reflected increased investment in product development, the recruitment of key employees and investment in marketing as the group moves towards commercialisation.
The company has also raised £13 million through an initial public offering (IPO) on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), almost double its £7 million target, and intends to use this capital to build a second manufacturing facility to help cater for growing demand for its lithium-ion and lithium-ion derivative batteries as the car industry moves towards increasing electrification. This is helping fuel global growth in the lithium-ion cells market, which is expected to grow in value by 15 per cent annually over the next decade to £80 billion worldwide.
The company reported string interest from specialist automobile makers in its Ultra High Power and Ultra Energy batteries, but also that it was continuing to make good progress on its Ultra Safe cell, which is aimed at the energy storage market.
Other highlights in the six month report include the acquisition of 10 new commercial projects with an aggregate value of £1.9 million, seven of which are expected to complete by the end of June 2021.
The report also called the six months covered by the report as an important period for the business and one which coincided with the UK Government setting out its plan for a “Green Industrial Revolution” in the UK, including the need to establish a large scale battery manufacturing base and committing to back UK based battery related product development.
"As a leading developer and manufacturer of battery cells focussed on specialist markets, combined with the visible acceleration in the global move to decarbonisation and our recent successful IPO, means, we believe, that we are well placed to achieve our commercial goals," the report states.
"The next phase of our business is the continued product development of our three highly differentiated battery cells through to product release over the next three years.
"Alongside the product development, we continued to progress our plans for a ‘gigafactory’ as part of the proposed expansion of our production capability, developing our ability to meet the expected customer demand for our products."
The report concluded: "Following our successful IPO, the group is in a strong financial position.
"We continue to build opportunities across all of our core markets. As at the end of February we had 80 active engagements on a range of opportunities including commercial development and product request opportunities as well as discussions to create consortia to secure grant funding for focused projects aimed at financing key work streams relating to our product development work. We expect to continue to make good progress in all these areas."
Chief executive Kevin Brundish said: “We were very pleased by the response to our IPO from investors. Joining the market has coincided with a period of significant interest in our battery cells as governments globally look to decarbonise their economies. The IPO has provided us with sufficient capital to take our battery cells into production as we respond to this growing interest.”
Formerly known as AGM Batteries, ATME's origins lie in a joint venture between Dounreay operator AEA Technology and two Japanese groups, which led to the opening of a lithium-ion battery plant in Thurso in the late 1990s.
