Company Interview / First Graphene's global expansion

Key insights:

Strong commercial pipeline with diverse applicationsFocus on cement and concrete segment for environmental benefitsEmphasis on established markets over emerging ones

First Graphene sees a growing pipeline of opportunities as it advances its global commercialisation strategy. Michael Bell from First Graphene highlights the company's investment in application development over the last three years. There are notable advancements in various applications, including lubricants, moisture barriers, and polymers.

Michael shares that the cement and concrete segment remains a primary focus due to its large volume and environmental impact, with upcoming trials lined up to optimise material performance. He also mentions the company’s collaborations with established markets like Europe, which drive innovation and adoption of new materials.

Regarding financial concerns, Michael addresses analysts’ worries about debt, explaining it’s based on equity to be released in a structured deal. This financial strategy doesn't pose significant limitations on the company's operations.

Full unedited transcript:

0:00

Advanced materials developer First Graphene says it's seeing a growing pipeline of opportunities as it advances its global commercialization strategy. To discuss what this growth pipeline consists of, First Graphene CEO and MD Michael Bell joins me now. Michael, thanks so much for taking time to join us. Just tell us what you're doing here.

0:19

Yeah. Good morning. Uh, thanks so much. Uh, yeah, we've had a, uh, we're obviously presenting, uh, this coming week. Uh, commercial manager Neil Armstrong is presenting at the New World Metals Investor series in Melbourne and Sydney, and we thought it was quite a timely point that we start and discuss our commercial pipeline. Uh, over the last three years, we've spent a lot of time, uh, investing in application development to try and drive demand for our materials. Uh, we've had numerous material changes in how we make our product. And over the last six months, our, uh, our success rate and the conversion of, uh, our applications into production type opportunities has definitely accelerated, and we're now at a point now where we have the confidence to look into our pipeline and start discussing the ideas of it the applications, the volumes, the geographical regions. And so as we work through the next 12 months, we can demonstrate to our investors that we have a

1:19

material here that is successfully working on these applications, and we can see our revenue build from there. So it's really sort of the first time in three, three and a half years that we've been in a position where we feel confident enough at what's ahead to start and talk about these. We unfortunately can't talk about most of our clients names at this stage. But in terms of the applications, the sort of volume of product that we expect to sell into those and the geographical locations are things we can discuss. And as each one converts, we can start and tell our investors more about those applications and what they mean to us financially. All right. So you're hoping that this will open up to new global markets. Just tell us, I guess, what kind of products we're looking at here. I understand sports apparel, um, fire retardant construction materials.

2:05

Yeah. So some of them, as we have alluded to before in previous announcements, uh, the the more recent applications that have sort of been pushed across into either large scale production trials, uh, or are now in manufacturing, uh, things like lubricants. We have a bearing company that uses our material to, um, to help the trial biological effect of graphene and as a lubricant and also protected against anti-corrosion. So that's starting to move ahead. We have applications like moisture barrier and filtration, which is a bit of a new one for us, which is something we haven't spent a lot of time on. But we've got several clients that are exploring the same thing and taking it through production trials, so those are probably the main ones. We also have a lot more positive work in the polymer space. With recent production or material production changes. We've found that our material performs a lot better in polymers, and this can be for, uh lubrication and polymers to ease processing. Uh, and also strength or conductivity. So it's a wide selection

3:05

of applications, which is great because it sort of de-risk any dependence on one application. Uh, and all moving ahead very positively. Um, in terms of, I guess, what you're trying to do as well, to stop some of the carbon pollutions that we're seeing in the globe. I understand cement production is one of the world's largest polluters. How does all of this work into first Graphene's, um, pipeline as well?

3:30

So the cement and concrete segment is still what I would consider our primary focus. It is a very large volume, low margin type opportunities. So if sorry, when that is, uh, adopted commercially, it puts a lot of stress on us to be able to produce enough material and also get it to the sort of a price level that is that is mutually acceptable to both ourselves and the client. So that progresses. We've got a third trial lined up for the till towards the end of this year, which is really just a final verification of an optimized material, which is a cement manufacturing additive. Uh, with our uh, UK based client, the Breedon Group. So that will essentially be our largest trial to date. Uh, and it's very much a case of just verifying, verifying in a production scale that our material reflects what we've done in the laboratory. So that progresses. Um, as I said, it's a much higher volume product than what we've published in our presentation. Those are those

4:30

are much lower volume, but it's a much different margin structure. Um, and also a very diversified base. So cement and concrete remains our focus. We progress that, um, the pipeline is really a selection of opportunities that we wanted to talk about and start and talk about openly with our investors, as opposed to being a full list of our opportunities. So cement and concrete is definitely still in there. Now, Michael, I understand you like you have a lot of traditional market contracts, the likes of the UK's breed and etc.. How much are you targeting emerging markets?

5:07

Um,

5:09

that's a it's a good question actually. Uh, we find that in terms of our, our client base, uh, it's very, I would say European focused, the adoption of new materials like this is often coming from markets that are more established, uh, and have the innovation drive to, to adopt new materials. So our focus does generally focus on that type of client versus emerging markets. And just a quick question to Michael about some analysts concerns that you have too much debt. What would you say about that?

5:43

Uh, our data is solely based around, um, equity that's still to be released in a structured deal that we had some time ago. Uh, and we're slowly burning through that. So it doesn't really pose any great. Um financial limitation on us.