Dissemination of a Regulatory Announcement that contains inside information for the purposes of Regulation 11 of the Market Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019/310.

29 September 2021

CAP-XX Limited

("CAP-XX" or the "Company")

Audited results for the year ended 30 June 2021

CAP-XX Limited, a world leader in the design and manufacture of supercapacitors and energy management systems, is pleased to announce its audited results for the year ended 30 June 2021.

Key highlights

·      Revenue up 14% on the previous year

·      Product sales revenue up 30% on last year

·      Adjusted EBITDA loss* of A$0.4 million, reduced from the previous year (A$1.6 million)

·      Commissioning of ex-Murata coating, DMF and DMT lines successfully completed within budget

·      Capacity and yield from these lines continue to increase in accordance with plan

·     CAP-XX continues to pursue patent infringement action against Maxwell Technologies, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Tesla Inc.

·      CAP-XX is pursuing a licensee for underpayment of royalties

·      CAP-XX continues to develop new IP around supercapacitors and energy storage

·     Cash reserves as at 30 June 2021 were A$0.2 million before the post period end receipt of proceeds from exercise of employee options and capital raising.  A further R&D Tax rebate is anticipated later this calendar year

·     The cash reserves at 30 June 2021 were lower than expected due to underpayment of royalties by a licencee, delays in the sale of the employee share options, and an increase in legal expenses in the last quarter related to patent infringement and licencing

·      The new financial year has started well. Trading is in line with market expectations

* Adjusted to exclude net Murata project expenses, legal expenses for patent infringement and expenses for a one off bad debt provision.

Anthony Kongats, Chief Executive of CAP-XX said:

"We are pleased to be able to report a year of successful transition, during which we have significantly expanded production at our relocated headquarters in Sydney, while increasing revenues.  The major focus for CAP-XX remains to become profitable and cashflow positive as soon as possible, by leveraging the recently installed Murata production equipment to raise product sales. We look forward to the future with increasing confidence."

Electronic copies of CAP-XX's audited annual report and accounts for the year ended 30 June 2021 will shortly be available from the Company's website: www.cap-xx.com

For further information contact:

CAP-XX Limited

Anthony Kongats (Chief Executive Officer)                                 +61 (0) 2 9428 0139

Kreab (Financial PR)

Robert Speed                                                                              +44 (0) 20 7074 1800

Allenby Capital (Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker)

David Hart / Alex Brearley (Corporate Finance)                          +44 (0) 20 3328 5656

Tony Quirke (Equity Sales)

More information is available at www.cap-xx.com

Notes to Editors:

CAP-XX (LSE: CPX) is a world leader in the design and manufacture of thin, flat supercapacitors and energy management systems used in portable and small-scale electronic devices, and to an increasing extent, in larger applications such as automotive and renewable energy. The unique feature of CAP-XX supercapacitors is their very high power density and high energy storage capacity in a space-efficient prismatic package. These attributes are essential in power-hungry consumer and industrial electronics, and deliver similar benefits in automotive and other transportation applications. For more information about CAP-XX, visit www.cap-xx.com

Chairman's Report

It has been a very busy but ultimately highly successful year for CAP-XX, with progress in a broad range of areas setting the Company on a path to achieving sustained and growing profitability. I am pleased to report that the commissioning of the ex-Murata Coating, DMF and DMT production lines in Sydney has been successfully completed on budget. Efforts to build sales are bearing fruit, with product sales up 30% year-on-year and the sales order book has increased by more than 160% from July 2020 to July 2021. All of this was achieved against a backdrop of a very challenging global environment as we work hard to mitigate the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The new financial year has started well. Trading is in line with market expectations.

The Board remains of the view that the installation of the additional production facilities at the Seven Hills facility will be transformational for the Company's sales and profitability.  At full capacity, the lines will be able to produce around 4.8 million DMF or DMT products per year and more than 2.4 million DMH products per year, all at a much lower unit cost than the prismatic parts which the Company currently manufactures in Malaysia. While full production capacity of the coating, DMF and DMT production lines has not yet been reached, the Board is very pleased with the demand expressed by both pre-existing Murata customers and new customers.

Demand from the top 10 potential customers already exceeds the annual capacity of the production lines at the Seven Hills facility Orders and shipments for these products continue to increase. As the Board expected, the early product shipments have been to former Murata customers. The Board expects that more than 75% of Murata's former customers by value will be retained. These early sales have been for smart meters, security products and medical devices. Importantly, we are increasing new business in consumer products and Internet of Things (IoT) sensor applications. As demand builds, the Board will look at how to best grow sales, potentially by adding new capacity and/or new product lines, in line with the Company's plan. This includes the DMH line which is scheduled to be commissioned in 2022 subject to customer pull and available CAP-XX resources. Customer enquiries for DMH products are primarily for applications such as gaming, tracking, electronic shelf labels, medical devices, IoT sensors and smart credit cards.

During the year ended 30 June 2021 and subsequently, CAP-XX has announced a number of commercial engagements where customers, including Spire Health, RGM SpA, Sensys Networks, Everactive, Jack (a start-up of AGC Automotive Europe), VAIMOO, Portal Instruments and Epishine, have selected its supercapacitors for healthcare, automotive, monitoring and solar end-use applications. 

Like most businesses, the Company has experienced impacts due to COVID-19. Local lockdowns in the Sydney area have meant that all non-essential staff have had to work from home for most of the year. The Company has also had to close production at Seven Hills for short periods of time to reduce the risk of the spread of COVID-19. Pleasingly, our production staff have now received at least their first vaccination, and many have received their second. Recruitment of engineers and technicians in Sydney has been delayed due to Public Health Orders banning travel by candidates, which has in turn delayed some production initiatives. Production efficiency and output from Malaysia has been impacted by COVID-19. The ban on CAP-XX engineers travelling to Malaysia; the compulsory shut down of businesses there and a ban on bringing additional labour into the country, have negatively impacted the Company's output. This has also delayed production of our 3 Volt products, which requires CAP-XX staff on site. On the demand side, a small but reducing number of former Murata customers have advised the Company that they are still holding large inventories of our products, due to the combination of a short-term reduction in end customer demand for their products, coupled with large final purchases made from Murata before the production lines were closed for transfer. Nevertheless, the Board believes that the Company has weathered these impacts relatively well with product sales up 30% on the previous year.

Licensing is also an important revenue stream for CAP-XX and the Company continues to vigorously defend its intellectual property. During the year, the Company investigated its options to recover the US$4.95 million damages, plus legal fees awarded to the Company against Ioxus, Inc. Ultimately, the Board decided that the prospects for any recovery from the bankruptcy of Ioxus, Inc. or related parties was very remote and didn't warrant further expenditure. However, we will be alert for any breaches of the Company's intellectual property by the new owner of the Ioxus assets. CAP-XX continues to pursue a similar patent infringement action against Maxwell Technologies, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Tesla Inc., with the court-ordered mediation expected to commence in the next few months. During the year the Company also signed a licence agreement with Panasonic covering two expired patents for a one-off fee. The level of the royalty payment received from Panasonic was commensurate with Panasonic's modest sales of supercapacitors and the royalty rates for other CAP-XX licence agreements granted. The Company is now additionally in dispute with one of its licencees over underpayment of royalties. The Company is steadfast in its goal to be paid the royalties it believes it is entitled to and will continue to pursue payment as an integral part of vigorously defending its intellectual property. In the meantime, the Company continues to develop new intellectual property concerning supercapacitors and energy storage devices.

Total Company sales revenue for the year to 30 June 2021 increased by 14% to A$4.1 million (2020: A$3.6 million). Pleasingly, product sales were up 30% from FY 2020, which is a direct result of the strong pipeline of opportunities which have been commented upon in prior year reports, recent trading updates and the various announcements the Company has made. Licensing and royalty revenues were down for the reasons mentioned above. The reported EBITDA loss for the year to 30 June 2021 was a loss of A$2.5 million (2020: loss of A$4.2 million), which includes the amortisation of share-based payment expenses, Murata project expenses, legal expenses for patent infringement and the adoption of AASB16 in the prior year.  When adjusted for these one-off factors, the like for like comparison is an adjusted EBITDA Loss of A$0.4 million (2020: loss of A$1.6 million).

During the year, 15 million employee share options were due to expire. These options were all held in a single holding by the Trustee of the Company's Employee Option Plan. This trust structure had been set up in 2015 to provide legitimate tax benefits to the Company's employees. At the expiry date, the Company's share price was close to the option exercise price.  As a result, the Trustee and the employees agreed to exercise and sell the resulting shares to minimise any cash calls on employees. In the process of marketing the new shares resulting from the exercise of the employee share options, the Company's joint broker, Cenkos, identified extra demand for the Company's shares from institutional investors. As a consequence, the Company agreed, following the period end and in conjunction with the sale of the new shares resulting from the exercise of options, to raise an additional £2.6 million (net of expenses) through a placing of additional shares. The funds from this placing will be used to commission the DMH line, for new product development, new supply chain capability and legal fees associated with patent infringement and licencing.

The Board is confident that the successful commissioning of the former Murata production lines will transform the Company's sales and cash flow position. 

Patrick Elliott

Chairman

29 September 2021

Business Review

Review of Operations and Activities

The Reported EBITDA loss for the year to 30 June 2021 was a loss of A$2.5 million (2020: loss of A$4.2 million), which includes the amortisation of share-based payment expenses. This loss also includes A$2.8 million in Murata project expenses (a net figure of A$1.6 million after the expected incremental R&D tax rebate) (2020: A$2.1 million), A$0.3 million in legal expenses for patent infringement, and approximately A$0.2 million for a one-off increase in the bad debt provision.  When adjusted for these one-off factors, the like for like comparison was an adjusted EBITDA loss of A$0.4 million (2020: loss of A$1.6 million).

Cash reserves as at 30 June 2021 were A$0.2 million, down from A$2.9 million as at 30 June 2020.

The cash reserves were lower than expected due to underpayment of royalties by a licencee, the sale of the employee share options being delayed to after 30^th June 2021, and an increase in legal expenses in the last quarter related to patent infringement and licencing. The 2021 year end cash position excludes the proceeds after expenses of the recent capital raise (£2.6 million net of expenses) and cash receipts following the exercise of employee share options (£0.4 million).  In addition, the Board anticipates that the Company will be in receipt of a Federal Government R&D tax rebate of approximately A$3.0 million, with these funds expected to be received before the end of the current calendar year. The Company continues to explore options to use a debt facility to fund the Company's growth. However, in the current climate the Board considers that many available debt-funding options are too expensive. The Company does have a revolving line of credit secured by the R&D tax rebate. There was A$1.4 million of this line of credit outstanding as at 30 June 2021, with the proceeds from the recent capital raising being used to pay down this facility.

As disclosed last year, two accounting adjustments need to be taken into account when analysing the financial results for FY 2021. The first relates to the Company adopting AASB 16 from 1 July 2019. This standard replaces AASB 117 and for lessees eliminates the classifications of operating leases and finance leases. Straight-line operating lease expense recognition has been replaced with a depreciation charge for the right-of-use assets (included in operating costs) and an interest expense on the recognised lease liabilities (included in finance costs). A full explanation of this adjustment can be found in Note 6 in the Notes to the Financial Statements within this announcement. The second adjustment relates to the higher than historical Research and Development expenditure, which is a direct result of the costs incurred in the relocation and commissioning of the acquired Murata plant and equipment.  A material percentage of the expenditure incurred can be claimed as eligible Research and Development expenditure under the current Australian Taxation Office guidelines and is subject to a rebate.  The amount of eligible Research and Development expenditure for FY 2021 totalled A$7.0 million (2020: A$7.4 million) which will generate an expected Government rebate of approximately A$3.0 million (2020: A$3.2 million) which is anticipated to be received before the end of the current calendar year.

The Company's sales pipeline is robust with many of the opportunities being converted to sales orders.  The outstanding sales order book as at 30 June 2021 was more than 160% higher than at the same time in the previous year. Total product sales revenue for the year to 30 June 2021 was A$3.5 million (2020: A$2.7 million) which represents a 30% year-on-year increase. The contributing factors underlying this increase were sales of DMF and DMT products manufactured by CAP-XX at Seven Hills and sales of cylindrical can supercapacitors. These increases offset the contribution from Licensing and Royalties which was down from the previous year.

Operational expenditure, excluding the direct costs of the Murata project, decreased by 10% from A$6.7 million to A$6.0 million. The decrease in expenditure is attributable to lower travel expenses across all departments due to the COVID-19 restrictions and a decrease in legal expenses principally associated with patent infringement cases.

Research and Development expenditure has been held steady in FY 2021, with the focus being the development of new intellectual property around supercapacitors, energy storage and related applications. 

Business Environment

The Board believes that CAP-XX's technology provides a significant competitive advantage over existing supercapacitor manufacturers such as TDK Corporation, Skeleton, Eaton, LSMtron, Nippon Chemicon Corporation and other Chinese and Korean competitors. The Board believes that these companies are unable to match the CAP-XX technology in terms of thinness, power density, energy density and reliability. Most of the Company's competitors only manufacture higher-capacity cylindrical cells used in large package modules and focus on applications where the combination of thinness, energy density and power density are not important considerations for the customer. These competitor products usually prove unsuitable for the various markets collectively labelled the Internet of Things (IoT) market, which is the key area that CAP-XX is targeting with the former Murata products and CAP-XX's existing prismatic products.

As reported previously, IoT applications, one of the fastest growing segments of the electronics market, provide one of the greatest opportunities for CAP-XX's products.  Driven by customer requests, manufacturers are constantly moving to new wireless protocols and adding to the functions and applications available on IoT enabled devices. Some of these new functions require high electrical power within the actual IoT device. Examples are e-locks, drug dispensing, facial recognition, and haptic feedback. Other devices are powered by energy harvesting and are battery-less. Others use low power batteries such as 3 Volt coin cell batteries. All of this means that power management continues to be an increasingly important consideration. The other important factor is size, as devices have tended to become smaller whilst their electrical power demands have increased. The Company has been successful in winning new business from a range of these markets, such as industrial actuators, e-locks, agricultural sensors, wireless displays, smart-meters, payment and handheld terminals, medical wearables, automotive dashcams and communication systems.

In the past, CAP-XX has faced competition in various markets from cheaper cylindrical supercapacitors where our thin form factor, high power and long life are not valued as highly as lower initial cost components from competitors. To counteract this, the Company released a range of cylindrical cells. Modest sales revenue for these products was first recorded during FY 2019. Since then, sales have continued to grow strongly on a year-on-year basis, with the Company being successful in winning a number of large volume orders. Several new large volume opportunities are currently being evaluated by customers.

As previously articulated, automotive applications such as truckStart, Stop-Start systems, regenerative energy capture or KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems), distributed power, hybrid electric vehicles and electric vehicles still present substantial opportunities for large supercapacitors. A number of CAP-XX's competitors are active in these markets, and the Board believes that the Company has significant advantages over the competition in certain applications. However, because of the significant resources that each project requires and the long time lag between product evaluation and mass production, the Board has taken the decision to focus the Company's resources on IoT applications and take a lower risk, longer-term, more patient approach to the opportunities for large supercapacitors with the focus being on a small number of key automotive projects.

Opportunities

The overall direct sales pipeline for CAP-XX's supercapacitors continues to be large in quantum and varied in terms of the targeted markets. The key IoT target markets remain similar to the previous year, with IoT wearables, health, automotive, security, smart-metering, energy harvesting and consumer products having the most appeal and presenting the largest volume opportunities. While many applications are strictly confidential and cannot be disclosed, the Company has, over the last year, announced details of several customers applications with the approval of those customers.

Our customers' markets are constantly evolving as new products and technologies threaten the incumbents. In this environment, CAP-XX needs to always remain alert and be flexible to changing business conditions and market needs. This creates opportunities to offer products that address what our markets want.

CAP-XX is continuing to refine the products that it offers for the various IoT applications and other markets. The Company has introduced the Murata range of DMF and DMT thin prismatic supercapacitors to address the space-constrained and/or power-hungry needs of many IoT products. These products are already being shipped from the Company's new Seven Hills factory. The Company plans to commission and commence shipments of the very thin DMH supercapacitor by next year. At only 400 microns in thickness, the Board believes that this is the best performing supercapacitor in its class.

The Company also plans to use its 3 Volt chemistry in certain models of supercapacitors currently made in Malaysia. Assuming that sales of these 3 Volt products are as expected, the Company will eventually look to produce 3 Volt products on the DMF line at Seven Hills. The development of the 3 Volt product has been targeted to meet demand for small, inexpensive, energy efficient power solutions for thin wearables, key FOBs and other IoT devices, especially those using 3 Volt coin cell lithium ion batteries, such as the CR2032 battery.

In the future, there is an opportunity to migrate this same 3 Volt technology into larger prismatic supercapacitors, automotive modules and other products for high-energy, high-power applications. As already noted, CAP-XX is concentrating on a small number of automotive opportunities. To further increase the Company's likelihood of success, the Board is investigating a strategy of partnering with automotive and military Tier-1/Tier-2 suppliers, through either a new license agreement or a joint venture, to supply the automotive markets. The Board believes that such partnerships will be beneficial for all parties involved.

The Company intends to continue using its intellectual property to develop additional substantial and recurring income. A significant benefit of the existing licencing agreements is that they validate CAP-XX's technology leadership in the field of supercapacitors and energy storage, and the potential for supercapacitors as a mainstream consumer electronics technology. Our licensees' product lines and sales activities are also increasing our exposure to markets and customers that were previously beyond the Company's reach.  It is also important to note that the strategy of our licensees is to offer product ranges targeted at certain end markets. As such, none of them meet the product type or size requirements for all markets and all applications, leaving scope for CAP-XX to supply these other markets directly using products made by CAP-XX and its contract manufacturers.

There remain several additional opportunities for the Company to pursue new licencing arrangements. Some of these are at differing stages of discussions. Others may require the Company to enforce its patent rights through court action, as already noted in the Chairman's statement.

Strategies for Growth

Given the increasing levels of market interest in CAP-XX's technology and its high-performance supercapacitors, the Company believes that the IoT markets, in particular, offer significant opportunities for growth and to reach the key strategic objective of CAP-XX achieving profitability and positive cashflow.

The Company continues to engage in discussions aimed at securing business in the IoT space with a significant number of global original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). CAP-XX is strengthening its relationships with these organisations and has regular engineering meetings with design teams, manufacturing groups and contract manufacturers. The Company is unable to comment on specific clients, but the Board is pleased with the overall progress and is confident that the available market for supercapacitors is increasing as manufacturers become more familiar with the technology.

Over the last year, the Company has aligned its marketing activities to specifically focus on a number of different IoT markets, such as asset tracking, automotive, e-locks, medical devices, handheld terminals, smart meters, wearables and wireless sensors. The efforts to date have produced a significant increase in visits to the Company's webpages and sales enquiries. The Board expects for this growth to continue. CAP-XX's strong environmental credentials, which have been recognised by the London Stock Exchange providing the Company with its Green Economy Mark, are consistent with this strategy.

The Company will continue to monitor new opportunities to increase its sales, through its current distributors, via direct sales to customers and new product offerings. These offerings may take the form of complementary energy storage devices and modules. The Company is also increasing the size of its own sales force and adding new distributors to ensure that global coverage and penetration is maximised.

It is important that the Company is able to benefit from the large investment made over many years in building its patent portfolio. Where third parties are found to be infringing these patent rights, the Company has and will continue to vigorously defend its rights, even if this means pursuing legal action as it did successfully against Ioxus. 

Research and Development

The markets in which the Company operates are competitive and are characterised by rapid technological change. CAP-XX has a strong competitive position in prismatic supercapacitors in all of its target markets as a result of its capability to produce supercapacitors with a high energy and power density in a small, conveniently sized, flat package. CAP-XX's devices are also lightweight, work over a broad temperature range and have an operating lifetime measured in years.

To stay ahead of the competition, the Company is developing a strong pipeline of new products to follow the 3 Volt products already discussed. CAP-XX's R&D efforts are focused on a mix of short, medium and long-term opportunities, covering new products, cost reductions and improved product performance. CAP-XX has a research facility within its Seven Hills site in Sydney, Australia, where a team of six scientists work to maintain CAP-XX's leading technology position in electrodes, separators and electrolyte materials and their assembly into supercapacitor devices. This team is supported by 12 engineers. During 2021, significant progress has been made in a number of key areas including improvements on the ex-Murata coating, DMF and DMT lines, new cell chemistries, improving the life of cells, developing new packaging concepts, reducing the cost per cell and developing new electronics to optimise the performance of the Company's modules. CAP-XX has also signed numerous collaboration agreements with leading research institutions, whilst the Company's Scientific Advisory Board provides CAP-XX with clear direction on commercially relevant technologies for its ongoing R&D programme.

The Company's success depends on its ability to protect and prevent any infringements of its intellectual property. To protect this important asset, the Company has considerable intellectual property embodied in its patents covering the design, manufacture and use of its high-performance supercapacitors. The CAP-XX patent portfolio currently consists of nine patent families, with 19 granted national patents with an additional four patent applications pending in various jurisdictions. The Company's intellectual property strategy has been to build value by focusing on opportunities to capture market share and exclude competition, with an IP portfolio capable of generating licensing revenue. The Directors believe that comprehensive embodiments and interlocking patent groups, combined with a 'quick to file, quick to abandon' policy, have given the Company a strong and focused IP portfolio.

Outlook

The major focus for CAP-XX continues to be to become profitable and cashflow positive as soon as possible by leveraging the successful commissioning of the newly installed former Murata production equipment to facilitate increased product sales.

CAP-XX Limited

Consolidated statement of profit or loss

For the year ended 30 June 2021

CAP-XX Limited
Consolidated statement of comprehensive income

For the year ended 30 June 2021

CAP-XX Limited

Consolidated statement of financial position

As at 30 June 2021

Consolidated statement of cash flows

For the year ended 30 June 2021

Notes to the financial statements

Basis of preparation

The financial information included in this announcement does not constitute statutory accounts within the meaning of the Australian Corporations Act 2001.  Whilst the financial information has been computed in accordance with Australian equivalents to International Financial Reporting standards and other authoritative pronouncements of the Australian Accounting Standards Board, Urgent Issues Group Interpretations and the Corporations Act 2001, this announcement does not itself contain sufficient information to comply with those requirements.