Ilika (LSE:IKA) — Capital Markets Day - Retail Investor Presentation and Q&A

0:01 Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the ILIKA PLC investor presentation and Q and A session. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged. They can be submitted at any time via the q and a tab that's just situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Please just simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. However, the company can review all questions submitted today, and we'll publish those responses where it's appropriate to do so on the investor meet company platform. Before we begin, I would just like to

0:33 submit the following poll. And if you'd give that your kind attention, I'm sure the company would be most grateful. And I would now like to hand you over to the executive management team from ILIKA PLC. Graham, good morning, sir. Good morning. A very warm welcome to everyone to the follow-up to our Capital Markets Day that we held in London on Tuesday. And we're delighted to be able to go through a brief presentation and then address some of the questions that I'm sure you'll have.

1:07 So, we have a lot of content on our website that gives insight into the discussions that we had on Tuesday. They were very lively. It was a very well attended event. And there is a two and a half hour video, that we have posted on our website. It's also on the IMC website. And here's a bit of a a chapter and guide. First of all, I gave a few minutes overview of ILIKA as an organization. Then we had a presentation from John Tinson, our VP of Sales and Marketing, who covered the Sterex commercial review, and that was supplemented by guest appearance by Brad Womble, who is the Senior Director of Strategy and Business Development at CIRTEC, and he answered a series of questions in a fifteen minute session.

2:08 He was followed up by Denis Pizzaro, who is our product manager at ILIKA, and he gave a demonstration of our Sterex devices

2:21 that are powered by Sterex batteries. We had a a an audience q and a on Sterex, and then we changed gear a little bit and Louise Turner, who's our VP of Product Development, gave an overview of the Goliath program. Again, by demonstration of Goliath from Denis while he was watching before we had a Goliath audience Q and A, followed up by a really interesting EV industry panel that was moderated by James Carmichael at Berenberg. He's the analyst who covers us there. Doctor. Thomas Bartlett, he was actually the Director or the Deputy Director of the Faraday Battery Challenge at Innovate UK.

3:09 And Julian Heatherrington is the Automotive Transformation Director at the Advanced Propulsion Centre or APC, as well as myself. So some really interesting data that was shared by that panel in answer to questions that James posed to us. Jason then gave an overview of the company finances and an ESG update, and I wrapped up before a final q and a session. So well worth a review. So for those of you who may be new to the ILIKA story, we are a specialist in solid state batteries. We've got two product lines. On the one hand, we've got our Sterex miniature cells, and they've been developed primarily to power miniature medical devices and also industrial IoT.

4:07 And then our second product line is our Elias large format cells, which target the automotive industry and also cordless consumer appliances. And we are differentiated because we've developed solid state batteries with an oxide electrolyte and a silicon anode, which makes them intrinsically safe, reduces raw materials costs and increases cell life with a competitive performance. So the company was actually founded as a spinout here in Southampton as a from a local university. We have a patent portfolio of 62 international patents. We're addressing huge markets.

4:52 The total addressable market for automotive batteries in 2030 is expected to be US$280,000,000,000. And we've got a healthy cash balance that we expect to have of £11,000,000 on our balance sheet in a few days' time at the end of our financial year.

5:16 One of the things that I like to emphasize is that ILIKA has an asset light licensing model, and we demonstrate our process on production intense equipment before transferring that technology to manufacturing partners who are responsible for actually manufacturing the products that we have developed. So we are not in the business of building and operating large factories, so gigafactories in the example of EV batteries. We are in the business of being specialists in developing solid state battery IP and then licensing that to our manufacturing partners.

6:05 First of all, SteraX. This is a unique miniature battery. You can see a close-up picture of the m 300 battery on the top left. That's a stack of six individual cells, which you can see are connected down the edge of the battery. And there for a sense of scale, on the right hand side, you see a series of the same batteries alongside the head of a pair of tweezers and some images along the bottom of the manufacturing process that we have at our pilot line here in Southampton. The addressable markets for these batteries are extremely interesting. They cover a series of breakthrough sectors.

6:59 And Brent Womble actually talks at length in his video about these markets, and they are perfectly aligned with the sectors that Certech, our manufacturing partner for Sterex, is currently addressing principally in The US. So they cover neuromodulation, for applications like pain relief, implanted sensors, orthopedics, so hip, knee, shoulder joints, ophthalmic applications, so these are smart contact lenses, sometimes with an ARVR application, and then also orthodontics or dental aligners.

7:49 The big news really from last summer was the partnerships that we have with Surtech. They are very vertically integrated. They're an outsourced partner for medical device OEMs like Abbott, Boston Scientific, and Medtronic. And you can see from that jigsaw puzzle graphic on the bottom left that they have all of the capability that's required in order to make thin film miniature devices, which is what our Stereax batteries are. That's a picture of their facility in Lowell in Massachusetts on the bottom right. And that is where the equipment that we have transferred to them from our facility here in Southampton is being installed and commissioned at the moment.

8:41 So, you know, the benefits to ILIKA, benefits to ILIKA shareholders are that it really validates the Sterex product and the process that we use for making the product. They've got manufacturing capability at scale, so they can ramp up to meet customer expectations. They've also got a big business development team, so we have a partnership that gives us access to more resources.

9:07 And there's very strong alignment between the sectors that both organizations are addressing. They've also already developed a neurostimulator technology platform, which gives that particular application a bit of a head start when you add in the Sterex technology.

9:30 So I would recommend that you take fifteen minutes to watch the Brad Womble video. He answers nine questions, which are very relevant questions actually that our investors have often asked us in the past and are probably of interest to the audience that we have on the line here today. So the questions cover the markets that we expect to sell SteraDex into, effectively emphasizes and reiterates the markets that I've just summarized in the previous slides, addresses what our first likely market entry point is going to be, ramp up times, sizes of the market, the uniqueness of the technology, the competition.

10:22 He addresses some details of the contract and answers why Surtech was attracted to enter into this ten year licensing deal that we have with them. The audience was very engaged, and we had seven very good questions that the ILIKA team answered. And I'm not gonna go through all of these now, but you can have a look at the answers to these questions online, and they give you further insights into our views on these opportunities.

11:08 So then when we talked about Goliath, we emphasized that we have a, a regulatory driven uptake opportunity with, you know, a 145 countries now around the world having announced net zero targets, covering 90% of global emissions, transport being a real focus because this is the largest emitting sector.

11:39 And we really have a cutting edge solid state EV battery technology, which goes a long way towards addressing current consumer anxieties relating to EVs. The the fact that these batteries are non flammable and that they have a very competitive performance versus lithium ion batteries and a higher tolerance to operating temperature translates into a series of benefits for drivers of EVs. So they give you a a lighter vehicle, and that means that actually for a given weight of battery pack, you get a a longer range.

12:25 They're safe in manufacture, so that reduces cost, also use, and, they can be readily recycled, which will become increasingly important, to provide independence from, large and long global supply chains.

12:48 In terms of progress to date, so you will have followed the news that actually we are executing our £8,200,000 history grant together with collaborate collaborators. So BMW and WAE are on the steering committee as well as as working with some of the premier UK universities and research institutes. Been carrying out a series of trials at equipment vendors. And of course, just before the end of the year, we achieved two milestones in quick succession.

13:34 First of all, our d four performance milestone, which was a design freeze in advance of our p one prototype, that we will be testing and and bringing to market, in the course of the next couple of months. We also achieved lithium ion energy density parity, demonstrating that our technology s curve has now overtaken incumbent technology, and we're starting to see the benefits of the improved features bringing through. And we entered into a system grant, which involves the design of an assembly line. So a 1.5 megawatt hour per year assembly line that we're doing together with MPAC.

14:26 Actually, earlier this week, Faraday institution, announced that, they are gonna be carrying out independent testing of our prototypes under their safe batch program. And just this morning, you may have seen that AgriTAS, the Tata Sons subsidiary, has joined the system grant program and also aligned themselves with our development program. So a fantastic partnership that really validates the technology and, gives us an opportunity to work together with what's currently, the largest investor in Gigafactory, assets here in The UK.

15:14 All of this puts us in a very strong position to push through to the delivery of our MVP, in 2025. Just a reminder of what our scale up plan looks like, the asset light business model. So we're currently carrying out work on our prepilot line that will continue to the end of our current development program, our d eight milestone as we call it. And we're already putting in place equipment in parts defined by that system grant collaboration program, to allow us to operate a full pilot plant, and that will, support the production of our minimum viable product or a generic a sample, which will also allow the company to enter into RFQs.

16:18 Beyond that, the investment in further scale up and development processes is really done by c o one or the OEM that we work with. They're the ones that invest in these assets to allow us to get to higher production volumes, and they do that under license as they build b and c samples, which are samples that support the commercialization of the vehicle platform.

16:53 So it's not only AgroTest that we're interacting with. They're the company that's in the public domain. Right now, we've got a pipeline of MTAs and NDAs. Over 80% of the agreements are with automotive and tier one companies, 18% with nonautomotive, so effectively consumer appliance companies. The majority, 70% are here in Europe, but we also have 12% in The U. S. And very pleasingly 18% in the epicenter of the global battery industry, which is currently in Asia, so principally Japan, Korea and China. So a strong pipeline of companies interested in our technology.

17:50 Jason, do you wanna say a few words about The UK grant funding, that we've received so far, in support of Goliath and and how the the future looks? Thank you, Graham, and good morning, everybody. So just to give education for those people that may not be, fully familiar with the story, and then to go through the current activity into the future. ILIKA has a strong track record in being able to access grant funding through a number of UK funding bodies, very much to support the Goliath, so the automotive product line. Unfortunately, there's been very little support on the Cerex line.

18:35 But in the Goliath product, we have received a number of different grants and funded support both through the Faraday institution and also through the Automotive Transformation Fund. And it was really great to have both Thomas and Julian on the q and a panel. Thomas representing the Faraday institution and and Julian representing the ATF, the Automotive Transformation Fund, to give their perspective. So once again, I would reiterate that it would be great to go and have a look and see what they said from a from an independent perspective on their industry thoughts. But in terms of the grants that we've received, you can see on the screen a number of different, grants from the past, leading to the two that are running currently.

19:24 So from the Faraday institution, we have the history project. So that is the £8,000,000 overall grant spread among a number of different partners. And of that, 2,800,000 of that falls to ILIKA as direct funding towards our road map of development. And that's spread over roughly a two year period, with the start of that being in February last year and continuing on to February next year. Running at the same time as that, once again, Graham has mentioned this earlier, and, we're delighted to welcome Aggratus onto that system project, is our scale up activity that once again is grant funded, and that's through the ATF fund.

20:11 So that really is there to support the scale up into manufacturing. So, once again, that's a larger fund, but, ILIKA will take £400,000 directly from that. But, really, that has some unique benefits for ILIKA in that it is

20:27 helping to reduce the cost of capital equipment, that are being manufactured by MPAC, our partner, who will have that assembly equipment ready for us to bring into our facilities here on the South Coast to help start that scale up activity as we move to that 1.5 megawatt facility as our route into the a sample. So that's all activity that's underway at the moment. But looking forward into the future, as we have moved up the TRL levels, the technological levels with the Goliath batteries, that has moved us from the Faraday institution into the ATF sector, and we're looking to pursue that further in the future with an APC funded project to take the Goliath batteries and get them along with other partners and their OEMs to put them into a mural and to start to see some of those batteries being tested in a pack and module rather than just on a cell basis. So

21:27 we have to go through the application process for that particular activity, which we'll be doing over the following months. But please do watch the space for our progress on that. And as of when we have any news, we'll be able to update everybody in the market as to what we've been able to achieve. But we think that's a great opportunity to be able to move us forward into that next level.

21:51 Thanks, Jason. Really great to see continued support, on a non dilutive basis, really, allowing us to leverage the shareholder equity that we're investing in our Goliath development program.

22:11 Then there's an interesting Goliath audience Q and A that you can dip into addressing these questions here. And then the industry panel focused on EVs that I mentioned at the beginning of this presentation today.

22:36 And then we moved into a quick summary of ESG. Jason, would you like to comment on that one, please? Yep. Absolutely. So by all means, please look at the video. But in summary, ESG remains a very important activity for ILIKA. We're obviously a very passionate company about the environmental impact, and it's one of the reasons why we see EVs and battery as a great route forward to help that decarbonization route, both passionate within the company and within our investor base as well. From a social perspective, we are very keen to make sure that we are having the right impact on society, whether that's within our employee base or within the wider stakeholder, grouping.

23:26 And from a governance point of view, we need to make sure that we are fully compliant with all of the rules and regulations. And, actually, we actually believe in trying to stay ahead of that. So and where that really comes to the fore and provides dual benefits is around our supply chain piece, Obviously, ensuring not only for ourselves that we are compliant with the regulations from the environmental point of view, conflict minerals, modern slavery, etcetera. That's also actually really important to our future sources of origin.

24:13 And to ease the adoption of our technology, we've taken the approach that we need to ensure that the materials, the processes that we are able to hand over to those potential customers are as easy as possible for them to implement so that we have not created a product that might look great on paper or as we develop that cell, but it's very difficult to manufacture. And that is a bit a theme that we've taken to heart in ensuring that through our ESG aspects, we take into consideration all the requirements of our potential customers. Moving on then into the financial update. For those that will have followed us for a little while, you will, be aware of our half year results from back in October that we presented, during January, on our IMC presentation.

25:03 But to provide, an overview very briefly for those that may not be familiar, at the October position, our income was 1,300,000, very much driven by the grant funding that we've just talked through, so system and history, and that was a a great improvement on the preceding year. So at the half year point, that was 1.3 up from, 200,000 in the previous year. And the update that we provided on Tuesday morning is that we expect, total turnover to be approximately £2,000,000 for the year. So that's continuing that recovery of those grant funding, although it has slowed down a little bit in the second half of the year as we talk to both the system and history grants are fixed amounts of money. So as we did a great job pulling into the first half of the year, so it has therefore slowed in the second half of the year as we get towards the end of those, and we'll continue into next year. The EBITDA loss was 1,900,000 at the half year versus 4.1 in the preceding year, and that very much is a reflection of that Certech agreement and our technology transfer process that we've gone through. So that's taking cost out of the Sterex side of the business as that has moved over to The US for them to go through the certification of the equipment and scale up the operations over in Lowell to move that forward. So that's allowed us to reduce the cost base within the business and allow us then to refocus capital that we have towards the Goliath scale up story.

26:33 And that really then feeds into the cash balance. So at half year, that was 13.2 versus 18.6 in the preceding year. And as we guided on Tuesday morning, we expect the cash balance at the end of April, so in just a few days' time, to be of approximately £11,000,000 reflecting that good income, and reduction in cost as well as good management of capital around capital spend items. And then what we have done previously for the Sterex side, and to reiterate here is while we can't give specific guidance, what we wanted to do is help with the education around how we would expect the revenue to build as we start to commercialize out the product line. So, I've gone through a full explanation within the, video, so please do go ahead and take a longer look at that. But in brief, there are a number of different layers that we would expect to come through in time.

27:31 The bottom layer you can see there is processing income where we are continuing to make the LCO deposition process here in The UK for the near future.

27:42 The orange section you see is nonrecurring engineering, so working with potential customers and OEMs of CertiK to specialize and certify our Sterex batteries for their specific applications. The gray section you can see is the revenue from royalties starting to come in from those batteries, as they go through that certification process. So we will derive income all the way through the FDA approval process, but, really, you see the ramp up towards the end there as those products are approved and certified and then

28:14 the volumes drastically increase. And then with the contract, we have preserved the right for, issuing additional licenses outside of med tech or for extremely high volume applications that Certec are not looking to support, and those are those spikes that you would see on top. So one off license fees that come as things progress forward. And then, really, new information that we're releasing at this time is very much a a similar graph, a similar buildup for the Goliath side. So once again, helping people to understand how we expect the Goliath revenue to build over time. So as we've talked about, we already get, and expect to continue to receive strong grant income, both for the foreseeable future with, hopefully, the success of that APC application, that we'll be embarking on. But then as we continue to undertake research and development going forward with future iterations of the Goliath product, sat on top of that, we would expect to then enter into some, nonrecurring engineering or commercial collaboration to, adapt our generic Goliath cell to the specific requirements of OEM or tier one partners as we start to interact with them. So those 17 that we discussed about, as Graham presented earlier. And then as we look to get to beyond for a sample towards into that a sample to b sample period, we would expect then to be licensing those out, to those partners so that they can enter

29:45 into production. And then, ultimately, once again, for that to switch into the battery royalty revenue as they get those approved onto car platforms and then ultimately onto the forecourts.

30:00 So in summary, as an outlook for the business, we are currently scaling Sterex through the joint manufacturing agreement and co marketing that we're doing with Certik. We're maturing that Goliath technology through the roadmaps that we've talked about with partners, including AgriTAS that we announced today through a series of defined technical milestones. And we're going to continue to pursue that grant support, which really gives a two for one leverage of the investment that we make in our Goliath program and also commercial revenue through partnering. So the commercial opportunity continues to build and we've got some really large addressable markets providing a strong platform for future growth.

30:50 And we had some final questions in the wrap up Q and A, which are certainly worth listening to and the answers that we provided. And actually, that wraps up the presentation that we've got today. And we're happy now to move into the next section, which will be to address some of the questions, that you guys have asked. Perfect. Graham, Jason, thank you very much indeed for your presentation this morning. If I may just jump back in there before we move to questions. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions just by using the Q and A tab that situates in the right hand corner of your screen. But just while the company takes a few moments to review those questions that were submitted already, I would like to remind you that a recording of this presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published q and a can be accessed via your investor dashboard.

31:43 Jason, Graham, we obviously received a number of pre submitted questions ahead of today's event. And as you can see there in the q and a tab, we've also received a number of questions throughout your presentation this morning as well. So firstly, thank you to all of those on the call for taking the time to submit their questions. And Graham, Jason, at this point, if I may just hand back to you to address those questions where it's appropriate to do so, and then I'll pick up from you at the end. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. We've got a a really great set of questions actually to drop through in the remaining half an hour or so that we have. I just want to thank everybody for taking the time to have submitted those questions. If we don't manage to cover them in the time that remains, we will review them afterwards and follow-up with the remaining questions so you'll be able to see our responses by logging into the platform.

32:36 So let's start with one actually that

32:41 we do get asked by investors given the success of The U. S. Stock exchanges. So the first question is, in the near future, will ILIKA PLC be listed on the NASDAQ or NYSE? So Jason, I think maybe you should answer that one. Yeah. Absolutely. So The US retail market is an important market to us, and we have around 20 of our shareholder base, is made up of US holders. And that's really through our registration with OTCQX Best Market. So that is a system that allows US based investors to trade in US dollars, during The US, market day, but really accesses the AIM listings. So, that provides a, we feel, the best opportunity for maintaining just a single listing within The UK, but allowing access to US investors to be able to invest within ILIKA, and join us on our journey.

33:49 We will continue, obviously, to monitor The US trading volumes and where we see the, demand for IKA shares coming from. And if things change, the board will obviously keep that under advisement as we look to the future. Thanks, Jason. So the next question is, has ILIKA's agreement with Certik in The U. S. Produced the results that ILIKA was looking for in the marketing and sale of its Sterex batteries? So I can confirm that Certik is working hard to deliver the plan that we outlined in the agreement that both parties entered into last summer. Since then, we've participated in two joint trade shows with Surtech this year in The U. S, and we're actively engaging with that pipeline of customers that we touched on during the presentation.

34:46 So the next question is, does the company plan to explore other small battery options in the mass retail markets such as cell phones or small power tools. So for the moment, the Goliath program is focused on batteries for EVs. You know, that is the largest global market for lithium ion batteries, and we feel that that is worthy of our focus. However, we are engaging in discussions with consumer appliance companies, And we hope to address those other commercial opportunities in due course once we've gone past the technology platform development stage of our program.

35:39 The next question relates to battery format. So, the question is pretty much every EV battery maker is moving towards cylindrical cells. Why are you persisting with pouch cells? And is your technology viable for different formats? So, actually, that statement isn't quite right. The the current split of formats is about 45% for pouch, 35% prismatic, and the remaining 20% cylindrical. So in fact, cylindrical cells make up the minority of cells that are used for EV applications.

36:19 So our technology is principally designed for flat formats. So that means pouch and prismatic, but that is 80% of the current EV market. And that's those flat formats are expected to dominate going forward. The next question relates to another battery company actually that's also listed on the AIM. So Gellion, some of you guys may know them. So they've announced that they've achieved a high energy density milestone by fabricating a three ninety five watt hour per kilo lithium sulfur 9.5 amp hour pouch cell. And this result represents a 60% increase in the energy density compared with current lithium ion batteries.

37:09 So the question is, is Goliath going to be left behind without a big third party investment? So first of all, let me just comment on lithium sulfur technology. It's important to understand that lithium sulfur technology, like the one that Gellion announced, is actually not a competitor for EV applications. It's a lightweight energy storage technology, but it has number of limitations because of its bulk. It's got a very low volumetric energy density relative to lithium ion and also a relatively short lifetime. So the the application that often gets assessed for is in defense.

37:56 So where weight is the primary consideration, so for inventory applications and drone applications, but not really for EVs. And relating to third party investment, well, look, we anticipate closer relationships with OEMs and Tier 1s going forward, building on the types of relationship that we announced this morning with AgriTAS.

38:27 Next question is, is Sterex being trialed by any of the neurological chip companies? And if not, why not? So the answer is yes. You know, Sterex is being considered for a number of neurostimulation applications. And as, Surtech's Brad Womble explains in his CMD video, this is actually one of Surtech's focus areas. So we're really building on that initial momentum that Surtech has in that field. Next question is, what's the Goliath relative performance versus incumbents lithium and other competing technologies? So in December of last year, '23, IKA confirmed that it had reached lithium ion energy density parity.

39:23 So based on the, you know, availability of information in the public domain, we believe that Goliath offers a competitive performance relative to other emerging technologies. And we're really pleased with the progress that our technical team is making along our roadmap. And I think the interest that you've seen this morning from AgroTAS and, of course, our pipeline of other tier one and OEM interactions is validation that the industry is interested in hearing about our work in this field and that we've got a a competitive offering. Let me just have a look at a another question here, something that's new.

40:17 So question here is what royalty fee are the OEMs paying? And, you know, can you share the structure? So, Jason, do you want to comment on that? So, unfortunately, we're not in a position where we can share the actual details, due to confidentiality and remaining competitive as we look forward. But what we can say is that, we have benchmarked what we have achieved, compared to industry, benchmarks and that they are in the mid single digit royalty on revenue rates, which, having looked at the information that's available to us, we feel is a good result for ILIKA and its shareholders.

41:06 So the next question is, do OEMs also pay you non equity for your development phase? So if so, how did we determine the number and what are the conditions for it? So I guess if I relate back to the, revenue development graphs that I, talked through, and, as I said, you can see in more detail if you look at the Capital Markets Day video, there is certainly an element of nonrecurring engineering fees that would come through as part of the development, to look at any specific requirements that the OEMs might have, whether that's on the Sterex side of the business, to certify our Sterex batteries for their applications or to change their form and function to suit a specific OEM's, application.

41:56 Or on the goliath side, as we move towards the cell and pack integration into a car platform, we are starting those conversations with the automotive and tier ones and understanding exactly what their requirements are that would potentially come with some revenue as we look to make our generic sales specific to their particular platform or particular pack needs. Next question is how many layers do you have now, and what is the maximum capacity per cell you have? I think that probably relates to Goliath. So we haven't actually disclosed how many layers that we have in our pouch cells. That's still a proprietary piece of information.

42:43 But our p one prototype that we used to power the demonstration vehicle of our CMD is a two amp power pouch cell. So what's the operational temperature that we have? So our p one prototype operates from minus 20 up to 85 degrees c. So that's actually a wider operating window than most normal lithium ion batteries, which are limited to 60 degrees C. Another question here, probably again relating to Goliath. It says, what's your pressure stack?

43:32 So actually, our our p one prototype currently operates without any externally applied pressure. So, you know, that's a pretty interesting performance outcome in its own right. But we are currently evaluating further performance advantages by applying moderate pressure because, you know, lithium ion batteries, including solid state ones, do breathe as the lithium is transferred from one electrode to another and then back again. And, typically, you do see an improvement in cycle life in particular by applying moderate pressure.

44:19 But the the lower the pressure that you can get away with applying while still retaining the performance benefits, the less expensive it is to build a battery pack and the the light of the battery pack that you end up with. So we are just understanding the trade off in performance relative to weight at the moment. Next question here is, can you provide more information on the cash runway and future funding expectations prior to receiving licensing royalties? It's covered in the financial Q and A section within the presentation. But the business is funded for operational activity for at least the next twelve months, and we continue to pursue activities to mitigate that with such as the Certi contract that allowed us to reduce the cash consumption on the Sterex side of the business as we complete that technology transfer and also through the grant funding activities that we discussed earlier, trying to obtain that non dilutive funding, to make sure that we can extend the operational runway of the business as long as we possibly can.

45:35 However, we are very mindful of the route to market of both the Sterex factories with the FDA approval and with the guys in the time to get a car platform certified and go to the a and c sample process to the point that you would see those cars on four course. And cognizant of maybe some of the higher profile failures within industry over the last twelve months or so, the board remains really, keyed to watching the market and ensuring that, we have the funds available to ensure that we can continue that journey and complete all our regulatory and financial, requirements, in operating the business to protect shareholder value.

46:23 Next question here, which is a little bit of a repeat of the first one we had. So, what's the relationship between the stock list on the LSE and the OTC market? There's a huge discrepancy between the two, and investors in The US are interested to better understand why. As I said earlier, we're only listed on the aid market, but the o c ATC QX route allows US investors to trade on that UK market, during US office hours and with a US dollar denomination of our stock. But the two are linked together, so there should be no discrepancy between the two. Only the lag between that operation over the various trading days that is allowed, and those will settle out as they link up every single day.

47:13 Another question we have here is, is the company actively discussing Gigafactory build out with an interested partner? And if so, who will fund the gigafactory build up? And is it the UK government, the commercial partner, or something else altogether? So, you know, I I think our engagement with tier one and OEM partners is a demonstration that we're actually discussing the the future trajectory in terms of commercializing our technology through partnerships. Just to emphasize again, we do have an asset light business model. So our plan is to transfer our technology under license from our pilot line, and any Goliath Gigafactory would be funded principally by our licensee, probably with government support. Most of the Gigafactories around the world are attracting government support. You know, the UK government has already said that it is providing £400,000,000 of support to the hybrid task £4,000,000,000 investment that is planning in their Bridgewater Gigafactory.

48:37 So, yeah, that's that's the trajectory of this. Here's an interesting one. It seems ILIKA is an unknown player by many potential institutional and retail investors currently investing in other much better known SSP development companies such as QuantumScape, Solid Power or Freya. That being said, how is the company planning to better promote itself going forward? So ILIKA is actually usually featured in analyst reviews of solid state battery developers. If you buy one of the industry reports on solid state technology, we are usually profiled in those. And, we appear regularly, at industry conferences. Actually, some of our team just yesterday were in Stuttgart at a conference.

49:32 So, you know, we we have a a profile. And also, actually, our NPI director, Robin Bell, will be on the solid state battery panel at move twenty four, which is a a conference that's coming up in June in London. So I'd encourage you to go along and hear what we've got to say at that event if you are local to to that trade show. So we work very hard to promote ourselves, and I think there is a wealth of information on social media channels and on our website on the back of this week's CMD and today's announcement.

50:22 So here's another question on Sterex systems. Sterex revenue is forever being pushed back. Why not just sell all the IP and patents to Certik now for upfront cash? Upfront cash. So we believe that actually we'll generate a better return for shareholders by working with Surtech to commercialize the Sterex technology rather than by selling the IP at this stage. You know, a lot of the value of the IP is gonna come through that demonstration of commercialization, and both Surtech and IKA are working very hard towards that goal at the moment. Next question is the directors have meaningless stakes in the company. Why haven't they been buying shares at these multiyear low prices?

51:16 Well, actually, the the ILIKA directors have significant stakes in the company, and that's through a combination equity. I am personally a significant shareholder and options which are to be exercised in due course. We invite you to go and review the, annual report, which has, the directors' holdings in detail so that you can see both, shares and options held, if you'd like to look at that further. Right. So we still got some, some questions coming in. So let's have a look at some of these, that are in the, the q and a panel that we've got in front of us. So the first one is, what role does AI play in product development and manufacturing process development?

52:05 Yeah. So actually AI is proving to be a pretty useful tool in keeping us abreast of the wealth of information that's out there in the sector literature, both from, you know, a published paper perspective as well as patents that are being filed. And that allows us to be able to do keyword searches and predictive modeling for areas that we may have to pay attention to in order to maintain freedom to operate. So making sure that we don't get restricted by other people's patent filings, or perhaps highlighting areas of opportunity. It's probably worth also noting that we are taking a very cautious approach with AI as a licensing company with patents, registered.

53:01 A number of these generative AI models suck data in to learn from them to improve themselves going forward. And our biggest concern is that we are protecting the IP of the company and therefore shareholder value by making sure that there is no possibility for leakage of any of our IP, outside the business. So we take a very cautious and careful approach with AI to make sure that ultimately we protect the business and shareholder value. Next question is, can you elaborate on the AgriTAS twelve month agreement? Well, look, it's fresh news just out this morning. I think it's it's a really great piece of validation of our technology. AgroTAS has, you know, joined the existing system agreement along with UK BIC, so the UK Battery Industrialization Centre and MPAC.

53:59 And, you know, we really think that they will add a lot of value to the development of that platform, and they'll also clearly learn a lot in terms of, solid state assembly processes. And also in parallel to that, there's a close collaboration in order to make sure that we can share some of the data that we're generating on our prototypes between now and D8, and also on the processes that we're optimizing through a pilot line and then transfer to larger scale implementation beyond that. Next question is how dependent are you on China for raw materials?

54:48 Well, what I would say is that the entire battery industry is fairly dependent on Chinese material refining. So when they take the ore and turn that into refined materials that can be used as the precursors for building batteries. And most of the The US and and European chemical companies are evaluating how they can increase independence. So, of course, in in Europe, we're fortunate to have two very active and advanced suppliers of battery materials. So I would mention Unicor and BASF particularly.

55:42 And, you know, working together with them and also suppliers from around the world, we are able to diversify our supply chain. Next question is what position, I guess, the indication is is what position is ILIKA PLC relative to Toyota or Chinese developers in terms of solid state batteries? So we do actually publish a competitive grid in our presentations. If you have a look at the presentation we gave at CMD, for instance, you will see that we have a look at the different players that are involved in the field. We're not unique.

56:29 It is a competitive landscape, but we have chosen materials that we believe differentiates our batteries from the competition. And in particular, Toyota is known to be working with sulfide based electrolytes, which is a different choice relative to our oxide based electrolytes. You know, the advantage of Toyota's choice is that sulfide based electrolytes have got a high ionic conductivity, and they're fairly malleable. So you can get good interface formation in the batteries that they make. But the downside is that sulfides are sensitive to oxygen and moisture. In fact, they react with those materials, to give toxic gases and, other, side reactions that you don't want.

57:22 And and therefore, we believe that actually the oxide choice that we've made will continue to differentiate us going forward. Mindful of time, if we just take a last question. So one here, any interaction yet with EBTL, so vertical takeoff and landing aerospace companies? At the moment, we are not pursuing other routes with Goliath being the primary route that we're pursuing. One of the challenges around the aerospace activity is that the battery's weight is the same at the start of a journey versus the end of the journey, and therefore, it doesn't have some of the benefits that you would receive within traditional fuel, which obviously is burnt up and therefore diminishes the weight of the airplane or vehicle through its transit and journey being able to extend that range. So are a number of challenges around that. So it's certainly one that we're not pursuing at the moment, but we are open to all of those discussions as we mature the technology, on the Goliath side of the business, and we'll look to access any of those as they become applicable to us.

58:37 Very good, Jason. So I think we are pretty much at the end of the hour session that IMC have kindly allocated us. So, I will hand over to Jake to wrap up. Perfect. Graham, Jason, that's great. And thank you very much indeed for addressing all of those questions that came in from investors. And, of course, we will be able to give you back all of the questions that were submitted today, and we'll give you those back immediately after the presentation has ended just for you to review to then add any additional responses, of course, where it's appropriate to do so. And we'll publish all those responses out on the platform. But, Graham, perhaps before really just looking to redirect those on the call to provide you with their feedback, which I know is particularly important to yourself and the company, if I could please just ask you for a few closing comments to wrap up with, that would be great.

59:24 Thanks, Jake. We really appreciate everybody's time this morning. It's been a fantastic turnout and some very interesting and stimulating questions. We've done our best to answer as many as we could, and we will review the remaining ones in due course. So once again, many thanks for your time today. Perfect, Graham. That's Graham. Thank you once again for updating investors this morning. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as you'll now be automatically redirected for the opportunity to provide your feedback in order that the management team can really better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete, but I'm sure it'll be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of management team of ILIKA PLC, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That now concludes today's session. So good afternoon to you all.