Nanoco loses £17m contract as Apple abandons iPhone project
Apple’s about-face on an iPhone camera project caused UK tech firm Nanoco to lose three quarters of its value, as the California giant cancelled a contract worth £17.1m.
Nanoco told investors on Friday a major “US customer” had not renewed a contract with the firm, leading shares to fall 74 per cent in its worst one-day performance since it listed in 2009.
Nanoco’s quantum-dot technology, if used in iPhones, could have boosted the smartphone’s camera performance.
A spokesperson for Nanoco refused to comment on the identity of the customer. Analysts from Deutsche Bank, Edison and Bluefin Research all pointed to Apple as being behind the loss, the Telegraph first reported.
The London-listed technology firm’s market valuation fell from £93m to £24m on Friday.
Nanoco’s US customer first struck up a deal with the business in 2018, which was then renewed at the start of this year.
However the potential for the contract to be renewed again at the end of 2019 disappeared, after Apple abandoned the project which involved as many as five different suppliers including Nanoco.
Nanoco said on Friday it still expects to reach “a cash break-even position… for the 12 months ending December 2019 and to have a cash balance of approximately £6m”.