Tekna posts mixed third quarter 2021 financial results
November 26, 2021
Tekna Holding AS, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, reported its financial results for the third quarter 2021, recording revenue of CAD $5.6 million, down from CAD $6.5 million in Q3 2020. Materials revenue in the3 quarter grew 10% from Q3 2020, with 77% of sales generated from recurring customers. Total order backlog stood at a CAD $12 million, of which CAD $8 million came from materials.
Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter stood at CAD $-1.3 million, compared to break-even in Q3 2020 due to a CAD $1 million federal emergency grant received in that quarter.
“While Tekna’s Systems revenue posted a decrease in the quarter, the outlook for Additive Manufacturing, which accounts for approximately 60% of Tekna’s total revenue, remains strong and we’re firing on all cylinders to get production capacity up to meet accelerating demand,” stated Luc Dionne, Tekna Holding’s Chief Executive Officer. “Tekna began operating an additional plasma system in the third quarter that, along with productivity improvements, will increase capacity by 25%.”
In the company’s Printed Electronics segment, the qualification of customers developed positively, and Tekna states that it is on track to secure its first commercial customer in 2022. It has initiated talks with industrial scale-up partners in Asia and gained a new pipeline customer entry in Taiwan. Furthermore, Tekna is pursuing negotiations to lease a production facility in Sherbrooke, Canada, which would provide capacity of up to 25 tons of powder annually by 2023.
In the Energy Storage segment, Tekna’s development is progressing according to schedule and industrial-pilot capacity is expected to be ready in early 2022. Discussions are ongoing with LG Chem on a second potential joint development agreement involving new research.
Dionne added, “The EV and 5G markets are booming, which is driving the demand for Tekna’s nano-size silicon and nickel powders. Therefore, we have initiated discussions with several major silane manufacturers to secure our long-term supply.”
Also in the third quarter, Tekna launched its PlasmaSonic systems product line of plasma wind tunnels and integrated diagnostic solutions, targeting civil aviation in the orbital space and hypersonic flight industry, which has an estimated size of CAD $270 billion.
“Leveraging our thirty years of expertise in plasma energy and system design, Tekna PlasmaSonic solutions is able to recreate, on Earth, the wide range of extreme temperatures and pressures experienced by spacecrafts travelling in the stratosphere, at over five times the speed of sound. It is an exciting new segment for us in a rapidly developing industry, in which we see an estimated revenue potential of up to CAD $250 million over the next ten years.”
“Looking ahead, all the market indicators we are monitoring continue to be positive and Tekna’s ambition to grow 2020 materials revenues of ~CAD $13 million to a production run-rate of ~CAD $22 million in 2021 is within reach,” Dionne concluded.
