Executive Summary
Ceres Power (LON:CWR) manufactures fuel cells that, through patented technology, can run on multiple types of fuel. The company provides a number of products to its target markets, including combined heat and power to the residential market, and power units and back-up generators to the transport industry. Ceres Power is involved in a number of projects with high-profile business partners including British Gas, Calor Gas, and Bord Gais. In 2009, the company earned revenue of £952,000 and it made an operating loss of £9.3m. In 2010 revenue was £786,000 and the operating loss £13.2m (£11.7m pretax loss, after interest on cash reserves of £40.9m at the year end).
Company History
Ceres Power was established in May 2001 to acquire fuel cell intellectual property rights developed under the leadership of Professor Nigel Brandon over the preceding ten years by Imperial College. [1] Professor Brandon spent 14 years in industry, with BP and Rolls Royce, working in the fuel cell field [2] , before pursuing an academic career. Peter Bance took on the role of Ceres' CEO in 2003.
The Company floated on AIM in November 2004, placing 18.0m shares @ 120p/share.
In May 2005 Ceres announced groundbreaking technical advances and test results from its core fuel cell technology that laid the groundwork for all future developments [3] [4] . This was followed in August of that year by signature of an agreement for a commercial development programme for a CHP unit with British Gas [5] . This programme has been continued and extended ever since.
Work on the development of the CHP unit continued during 2006, announcing:
- Initial design, build and test of a 1kW fuel-cell stack, which would form the core of the CHP unit. [6]
- Wall-mountable system design for the CHP unit. [7]
- Expansion of Ceres' engineering facilities to support development of mass manufacturing processes for its technology. [8]
Whereas on flotation the strategy for monetisation of Ceres' technology was rather open (several possibilities were mentioned in the AIM AD), by the end of 2006 it had become clear that Ceres intended to derive its revenues primarily from the manufacture and sale of products based on that technology. [9]
An integrated wall-mountable CHP unit was demonstrated in September 2007.…
