Liverpool city region supercar brake disc manufacturer Surface Transforms raises £24.2m in new funds and predicts profitability in 2024. Tony McDonough reports
Carbon fibre brake disc maker Surface Transforms will finally move into profit in 2024, its chairman said on Monday.
In a statement to the stock exchange Knowsley-based ST revealed that an open offer for new shares in the business was “significantly over-subscribed” and has raised gross proceeds of £2.7m.
This adds to £8.3m raised in a share placing in mid-November and takes the total cash injection to £11m. And ST has also secured £13.2m loan from the Liverpool City Region Urban Development Fund, taking new funds available to £24.2m.
It will use the cash to go towards a £44m capital investment programme to continue to build production capacity to service its £390m order book.
In November ST, which is listed on the Alternative Investment Market, revealed sales for the four months to October 31 were £3m, bringing sales for the period to October 31, 2023 to £6.3m. In October it announced a new contract worth more than £100m.
Customers of the business include, or have included Porsche, Ferrari and Nissan, AMG, Aston Martin, Jaguar Land Rover and Lamborghini.
Last month ST said that although it had overcome production issues that dogged its operation towards the end of 2022 it still faced challenges on the production line. These are hindering the business from creating sufficient capacity resilience.
Before those issues came to light the business was predicting it would become profitable in 2023. Chairman David Bundred said on Monday: “We want to thank investors for their support of this open offer.
“Together with the £13.2m loan, described during the fund raising and still expected to conclude imminently, the combined £24.2m cash availability gives us the balance sheet strength to accelerate our capacity expansion.
“We continue to expect to move into profitability and free cash generation in 2024.”