Tirupati Graphite PLC on Thursday said its loss widened in the first half of its recent financial year, although revenue jumped in the period.

Tirupati is a London and Mumbai-based graphite and graphene producer with operations in Madagascar and India.

The company reported a pretax loss of £1.5 million in the six months that ended September 30 from £1.1 a year earlier.

The cost of production jumped to £787,312 from £255,193 the prior year, and the depreciation of operating assets increased to £639,079 from £172,853. Administrative expenses also increased slightly to £1.2 million from £1.1 million a year before.

Meanwhile, revenue doubled to £1.2 million from £560,058 the prior year.

Tirupati Graphite said operations and development at both the Vatomina and Sahamamy projects continued despite disruptions caused by adverse weather conditions in the period. Overall, there was 63% growth in production and 78% in sales were achieved compared to the previous year.

The 18,000 tonnes per annum facilities for the Sahamamy project are in the final stages of installation and commissioning, with production ramp up expected to be complete by the end of January, having been pushed back from the end of this month amid delays in the final set of shipments for the plant.

Looking ahead, Tirupati Graphite said it will continue to stabilise its operations at the capacity of 30,000 tonnes per annum over the next half year.

‘The overall strengthening of our operations alongside additional capacity additions has laid the foundations for the company to be a globally significant ex China source for mineral flake graphite, with further growth under its capacity build-up plans,’ Tirupati Graphite added.

At the beginning of December, Tirupati Graphite completed an oversubscribed capital raise of £5 million, and the funding will support the completion of its acquisition of Suni Resources SA, a subsidiary of Australian mineral exploration company Battery Metals Ltd, for A$12.5 million, which is around £7 million.

The funding will also support general working capital through the issue of 14.3 million shares at a price of 0.35 pence per share. Shares in Tirupati Graphite were up 2.7% to 33.37 pence on Thursday morning in London.

‘We are making good progress towards completion of the acquisition of Suni Resources, with all key obstacles now addressed. The projects are promising and pave the way for us to extensively engage with the highest growth markets for flake graphite,’ Executive Chair Shishir Poddar said.

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