1 April 2025
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) 596/2014 as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("MAR"), and is disclosed in accordance with the Company's obligations under Article 17 of MAR. Upon the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now considered in the public domain.
Strip Tinning Holdings plc
("Strip Tinning" or the Company")
Trading and Business Update
Trading materially ahead of expectations
Strip Tinning Holdings plc (AIM: STG), a leading supplier of specialist connection systems to the automotive sector, is pleased to provide an update for Q1 detailing a material improvement in its trading and business performance.
Trading in the Battery Technologies ("BT") division has been strong, and the Board now expects divisional revenue for FY25 to be more than 2.5 times FY24. This strong performance in the higher margin BT division is more than offsetting softness in the Glazing division, reflective of the wider automotive sector. Additionally, the Board has continued to focus on operational actions and its revised manufacturing strategy, as announced in its 11 December 2024 update, to further reduce costs and ongoing working capital requirements.
Consequently, the Board now expects to report a material c.£700k improvement in its Adjusted EBITDA loss for FY25¹, reducing the loss to £0.9m, which is half that reported for FY24.
In the December update, the Company also notified an increase in the expected lifetime value of its leading BT nomination2 for the supply of the Cell Contact System ("CCS") for the battery pack modules for a US based autonomous vehicle programme, from £43m to at least £56.8m. This contract is gathering pace and is the primary driver of the increased sales in 2025 as sales of pre-production parts has increased. On 11 February 2025, the Company was pleased to announce receipt of the $780k C samples order on schedule and the subsequent D sample order is planned to follow this summer. Serial production is scheduled to start at Strip Tinning in April 2026. The customer programme is also gaining increasing US media attention3 and the customer now expects rides for fee paying passengers to start in 2025.
The Board does not currently anticipate the supply of the CCS will fall under the recently proposed US Auto Parts tariffs, as the designated Export Commodity Category ("ECC") code, under which the CCS is already being exported to the US, does not fall within the automotive parts ECC coding categorisations.
The Board previously notified that to fund ongoing operational demands, to meet the production targets set by the BT nomination already signed and the continued development of the BT business, additional investment would be required in FY25. The Board continues to assess its optimum options to secure the requisite funding and as part of this the Company announced it applied to the UK Government's Automotive Transformation Fund for an up to £5.2m grant to support additional capacity. Having passed the Expression of Interest stage of the application process, the Board can now confirm it is in the detailed application phase and further news on the outcome is anticipated in early Q3.
The Board is also pleased to confirm that the Company has received a pre-determination letter from HMRC in respect of the Company's FY22 R&D tax credit claim (payment of which had previously been expected in FY24). As such, the Board now anticipates that it should receive a payment of c. £520k from HMRC toward the end of April 2025. It is also further expected that payment of the FY23 R&D tax claim estimated to be worth £250k will be received in H2 2025.
The Board will provide further updates to shareholders as appropriate.
The Company expects to report its preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2024 in early May.
Notes
1 Strip Tinning understands that as at the date of this announcement, market expectations for the years ended 31 December 2025 are for Adjusted EBITDA of (£1.6m). (Source: FactSet)
2 A nomination can be defined as a formal contract to supply components for particular vehicle models or programmes over a certain period. All lifetime values of nominations expressed at constant exchange rates as at 1 June 2024
The person responsible for arranging the release of this information on behalf of the Company is Adam Robson, Executive Chair.
Enquiries:
Strip Tinning Holdings plc Via Alma
Adam Robson, Executive Chair
Mark Perrins, Chief Executive Officer
Kevin Edwards, Chief Financial Officer
Singer Capital Markets (Nominated Adviser and Sole Broker) +44 (0) 20 7496 3000
Rick Thompson
James Fischer
Alma (Financial PR) striptinning@almastrategic.com
Josh Royston +44 (0) 20 3405 0205
Joe Pederzolli
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