Ceres Power Holdings PLC (LON:CWR) shares jumped today after it said its first half income is expected to increase by around 80% and also revealed that it has signed a new technology assessment agreement with a leading global original equipment manufacturer (OEM).
The developer of low cost, next generation solid oxide fuel cell technology also said it is in the final stages of agreement for further OEMs to work with its SteelCell® technology and is confident of signing further contracts by early 2018.
In late afternoon trading, Ceres Power shares were 7.2% higher at 13.0p.
READ: Ceres Power hails most successful year ever as fuel cell momentum builds
Under the new technology assessment deal agreement announced today, Ceres said it will provide its SteelCell® technology at the stack and system level for evaluation for combined heat and power applications, which if successful, would lead on to a Joint Development with the OEM partner in 2018.
In a pre-close trading update ahead of the six months ended 31 December 2017, Ceres Power added that key milestones have been delivered with all its current partners, including Honda, Nissan and Cummins, and it is on track to begin field trials in 2018 with its first go-to market product.
The firm said the delivery of these key customer contract milestones driving revenue growth and, as a result, the company is on track to deliver half year income of £3mln, around an 80% increase year on year.
Phil Caldwell, Ceres Power’s CEO said: "We have made rapid progress in the second half of the year, both commercially and technically. We continue to hit our targets with our current development partners, resulting in further growth in revenue which we expect to significantly increase over the same period last year”.
He added: “In 2018 we expect to see existing programmes progress from development into field trials with higher power systems and to take the next step towards commercial launch with the addition of new OEM partners."
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