Light Science Technologies Holdings (LSE:LST) — Full Year Results

0:01 Good afternoon, and welcome to the LIGHT SCIENCE TECHNOLOGIES HOLDINGS PLC Full Year Results Investor Presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and they can be submitted at any time using the Q and A tab situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question received during the meeting itself. However, the company can review all questions submitted today and publish your responses where it is appropriate to

0:31 do so. Before we begin, I would like to submit the following poll. And I would now like to hand you over to CEO, Simon Deacon. Good afternoon to you, sir. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to LIGHT SCIENCE TECHNOLOGIES HOLDINGS PLC. This is our twenty twenty twenty three financial results and company update. Just wanted to run through the introductions today of content. We'll be looking at the controlled environment of agriculture called the CEA, contract electronics manufacturer, CEM, the passive fire protection PFP, and the consolidated financial results, which Jim will be providing on on my behalf, and then the group strategy and outlook.

1:27 Here is, two pages of disclaimers. The presentation will go on our website a bit later on. So if you feel like a good read, please go on to our website and and have a read of the disclaimers. So introductions to the team. There's Jim Snooks, CFO and company secretary to my right, Andrew Hempsell and COO to my left, and myself, CEO of the company. So really the key financial operating highlights, we've had a record year in turnover in 2023, and we've seen a 13.8 increase in revenue to the previous year of 2022.

2:16 We've seen a fundraise done in that year of 1,450,000, which was the net proceeds. So we've got a good cash runway looking forwards. We've got a a £50,000,000 group quoted pipeline of sales opportunity, but we are looking to close over the period. And, also, we've got a £17,700,000 combined contracts and potential order book for us to to do throughout '24 and '25 and and beyond. We've done two acquisitions as well, and, also, we've received 398,000 in UKRI grants awarded. So it's been extremely busy year for us, and we've what we believe as management overachieved our expectations.

3:11 So let's have a look at the the companies which are involved. We've got four businesses in three growth sectors. We've got Tom Tech, which I'll come on to a bit later on, and LIGHT SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY. These are in the controlled environment agriculture. And as I mentioned, we'll be talking PLC's about that in the CEA market. They're award winning, and TECHNOLOGIES been going over thirty years. We've got UK Circuits Electronic Solutions based up in Manchester. This is our CEM side, contract electronics manufacturing side. This company has been going over twenty five years and has got a broad market reach in different sectors of the market, which I'll be talking about a bit more depth a bit later on. And then we've got the new platform business, injector fire barrier, which is the passive fire protection.

4:01 And and these companies got good synergy with UK circuits where we've been doing passive fire protection technology for over seven years. And the group overall did 9,300,000 with a 120 clients and 70 employees. So let's have a look at the the market and and how big the market is for us. Last year, we were talking about a market size of around 50,000,000,000. We're now talking about a market size of over a 100,000,000,000 opportunity for us in the group. And this stems in the breakdown of that is in the CA market, TECHNOLOGIES HOLDINGS we've got the global smart agricultural market worth 48,000,000,000, and this is a growing compound rate of 11.3% between 2023 and 2033.

4:56 Injector Fire Barrier, our new platform business, really exciting growing market with over 11,000 buildings here in The UK to do with a potential market size of 50,000,000,000. So you can see one of the reasons why we went into this market to give us more opportunity, of a larger market generating that cash runway that we're looking for on profitability. UK circuits, a fast dead business, which has been going for a long period of time in those markets I mentioned earlier. The contract electronics market is worth 2,300,000,000, and that's steadily growing. But we've seen a lot of reassurance coming back into the market and and companies looking to manufacture here again in Europe and and in The UK as uncertainty in the global markets and transport.

5:47 So what's driving these trends in our group sectors? Well, government policy is a large part of that drive. If it be water shortage around the world to do with climate change and the extreme weather, it makes a huge difference in in the CEA market. Food security is so important to all of us, and we've seen recently those flash floods in Dubai where the airport was flooded and a lot of Dubai was flooded. These are extreme weathers, and so growing indoors is a really important part of what we're providing, that technology so people can grow their crops indoors. What's the other things I'm shifting towards is is all the advance in technology. We talk about AI. Everything we seem to touch today has got electronics in it. And there's a big drive now that, you know, information, data, we sort of feed off it. And and that's growing, and that's seeing the Centimeters side grow as well as well as manufacturing here in The UK. So there's a really turnkey government policies behind this, a worldwide market and market sectors for a go at.

6:58 And as I mentioned, it's worth a 100,000,000,000. So let's have a look at Tom Tech and light science technology in the controlled environment of agriculture. So we we did an acquisition towards the late part of the year, didn't really see much revenue in those 2023 figures. And so you'll see that pushing through into 2024 where we gain the benefit of that acquisition of Tomtek. But this is a company which has been going over thirty years, well experienced in the CA market and polytunnels, vertical farms, and then mainstream glass houses, providing that technology in of a control system so that we can get the whole control of that environment.

7:47 And I'll come on to where our sensors are lighting their controls, the irrigation comes into all of this. This is all part of a global smart agricultural market of £48,000,000,000 and 11.3% growing CAGR. Our clients and our focus for our strategic partnerships are global. We want to expand our name and our product portfolio, and we're targeting certain areas of the globe, and that is in Americas. Really important, lots of movement in that market. Middle East, for obvious reasons, food security is big there with lots of imports going into that country. South Africa and Australia and New Zealand, where they're really tech savvy and want to bring a lot more technology into the CA market.

8:40 So we're creating distributors and partnerships globally so that we can expand. And we're we're doing this gradually over time, and this will save us money to expand, but also get us out into the market at a much quicker pace than if we were doing ourselves because these clients have got their own customer base and can feed directly into that immediately. We're working with clients like Haygrove, one of the largest polytunnel providers here in The UK and globally. Dyson Farming, you might have heard of recently in the news, more automation going in to picking their strawberries and supplying the high end supermarkets. Bridge Farm, Zenith, who we have a contract with, and we continue to grow our relationship there, Berry Garden Growers, and Tiptree, you would have heard of them through the jams you might see in hotels and your supermarkets.

9:39 So really broad range of clients and and expanding our our partnership and distribution network globally. So what are our products in the CA market? Well, we've got our lighting product, which is called the NurtureGrow product. Really important, energy efficient as you would expect lighting. Also, creating a recipe of light depending on what crops that you might be growing, and these could be food crops or they could be other plants which are growing. So it's really important to get the right recipe for your environment. But the other unique thing about our product is not just recyclable, but it's reusable, And that's where we change the innards of the product when it comes to the end of its life, keep the body of the product, and with our manufacturing site in UK circuits up in Manchester where we can slide the electronics into the body of the product and reuse it. This gives us a partnership and longevity with the client so that they're saving money themselves, but we're also getting the the next bit of business when they come to to replace the lights.

10:51 So the other side of our product range is our SensorGrow, and you would have heard me talking about this before. We spent a lot of time developing this product with our client base to make sure it was right. And this gives you picture, gives you a snapshot there of what's happening on a device. This could be your mobile phone. It could be your your laptop. But what we're trying to do here is get the grower to start be able to talk to the environment that it's actually growing in. So if it's growing in a glasshouse, what's happening? Do they need more nutrient? Do they need more fertilizer? What's happening in that environment? And this data coming back to them gives them the opportunity to see what they require. This could do to do with light intensity and frequency, air humidity and c o two, and temperature and pressure, water, pH, what's happening, soil temperature, moisture content.

11:47 There's a number of, items that we're we're detecting of the cardinals we believe to get the best crop and the healthiest crop. And in other countries, we're looking at detecting disease early or pests which might be on the crop if you're growing in a polytunnel or a glasshouse rather than in a vertical farming environment. So this is a real key part of our strategy and software system in our sense of growth monitoring and controlling product.

12:17 Toltec provides us and the synergies here in the CA market is the control system. They designed, manufactured, and supplied, and fitted these units that they've done for over thirty years. And this is really the bit which was missing for LIGHT SCIENCE TECHNOLOGIES, the control side. So bringing these together where you can manage from the sensor data and the lighting coming in, what's physically controlling that. And so their control system actually turns on the heating, the irrigation, the misting, opening vents and closing them, and starts actually acting on the information which is being provided by that sensor control and also the software system. So the real benefits here is energy resource savings, so we're saving energy here, which is obviously a key factor in any CA market.

13:11 We're applying a growing strategy, a touch of a bot a button. And as I mentioned earlier, this is all about talking to the environment that you've got and communicating so you know firsthand what's happening in your growing environment. Increasing yields and extending the growing season, That's really important to get more product out of the door for our growers. The quality of the product and reducing waste, and then the crop performance and monitoring. So this is really all part of our turnkey solution, which I'll come on to. So here really shows what we're doing. We all talk about AI data and where it's going or what's it where is it going to be used in the CEA market? And this is where software comes. You're collecting data through our sensors, so you'll see the picture on the left hand side, which looks like a load of wiggly wires coming out of the root there. Well, that's all the data coming out of it, and that then provides straight to the software system, which then connects to the control system. The control system is just below the sensor.

14:19 It's a Tomtek 200 there, and that's the controls with the little screen. You can see you've got your glasshouse image in the in the middle there to the to the left, and the lighting product on the side on the top of the of the glasshouse. And what we're doing is collecting the data, creating the right recipe in a lab with partnerships with universities, so you're getting the right recipe for the crops that you're growing in the environmental country that you're growing in, collecting that data, so we're providing the hardware, the software, the installation, and also the recipe for the environment and the crop that you're growing. And that provides that turnkey solution, which is the whole CA environment. So moving on to UK Circuits Electronic Solutions, our contract electronics manufacturer, CEM.

15:15 This division has increased revenue year on year by 13%. So it's a really important growth company for us, and that's mainly all organic growth. We've also got a good market size of £2,300,000,000 here in The UK, and as I mentioned earlier, a return to UK manufacturing.

15:38 We're in market sectors of pest control, sensors for not just the CA, but the fire protection market, gas and oil industry, audio systems, lighting, and more so now in robotics. As as I mentioned, everything's starting to become more automated.

16:00 So let's just have a run through UK Circuits. Twenty five years of experience there provides a very fast turnaround turnkey solution from design to finished product. We don't just make the SMT parts surface mount products there and then sell the boards on, which obviously we can do. We actually make the finished product at UK Circuits. So it's UK manufacturing at high quality and high volume manufacturing. We also got accreditations, which are really important to our customers. And on the right there, you can see some of the customers that you may have heard of, and we work with Flamefast, Rent A Kill, Switch two, Put Shack more recently, Cloud Electronics. So all of these are old companies that we've been working with for some time and some new ones as we expand into different sectors of the market as electronics moves in across our portfolio.

17:00 Injector Fire Barrier, passive fire protection division, is really an exciting platform business. We acquired the assets of this business towards the end of last year, and there was no revenue recognition in twenty twenty three's accounts for this particular company but will be in 2024. This division is really driven by the Fire Safety Act of 2021 and the Building Safety Act of 2022. It's got a £50,000,000,000 potential market with buildings. There's over 11,000 buildings in The UK which need remedial work doing on them. You might have seen as you drive past cladding being removed from buildings, facades being made removed from buildings as you see on the right hand side from the picture.

17:53 We're working injecting injector clad material, and we're one of the first installers to be approved in The UK. This is an exciting time for for this business as the contracts are of size. Our first one was £600,000 based in Salford on a number of tower blocks that we're working with there. And this is really good margin work, but also is near term cash generative and strong margins as I mentioned. So lots of work being done here, and we've got a quoted pipeline now of over £8,000,000. So this is a really exciting part for for the business. And as I mentioned earlier, it's got good synergy with UK circuits because we've been doing passive fire protection products for over seven years.

18:49 So some of the companies that we've been working with in the passive fire protection market is CGC, Key Square, and MJ Ferguson, just to name a few. There's a lot more coming through as we speak, but this is from our point of view of being accredited, of being the first one of the first installers in The UK and be able to operate nationwide is really important to us. Enabling safe evacuation of a building by putting this material in, it is super important, and I'll be showing you a video shortly so that you've got a better picture of what the material is and how it's put into a building so that you can see the cavities that we're putting in through a sock mechanism every two meters, which protects either floor by floor vertically or horizontally, which stops the spread of smoke and fire in a building.

19:50 So here's the video. Please have a look and watch this video. Thank you. So you might be wondering what the material is. It's a graphite based

20:38 sealant. So it's an acrylic based graphite sealant, and it expands upon the contact with heat. So if you've got insulation behind the the cavity, it will expand into the gap, sealing off, any fire or smoke going up the cavity. I'm going to hand you over now, I believe, to to Jim, to take you through the financials results of 2023. Thank you, Simon. So I'm going to, look at the, income statement for the group first off and then the, a summary of the balance sheet. Okay. So looking at the group income statement, we, achieved a revenue growth of 13.8%.

21:33 That's an increase in revenue of from 8.7 $17,000,000 in '22 to 9,300,000 in '23. The key driver for the for the revenue for the group is still our base business, UK circuits in the contract electronics manufacturing division. But as we move through '23 and into '20 sorry, '24 and into '25, we will see a rebalancing of that with the other two divisions, the Passive Fire Protection division and the Controlled Environment Agriculture division rebalancing that contribution. Alongside that revenue growth, we achieved a margin gross margin of 23.4%, which was up from 17.7% the previous year.

22:26 And that really is attributable to three key factors. The first factor is a steadying of the supply chain across the board. Through COVID period, electronic component supply chains have become disrupted, and we did see that starting to steady back into a a state of normality through the period. The second factor was our investment in plant and equipment and automation, achieving increased efficiencies at an operational level. And the third third factor was our continued development of our operating software, which gives us ever increasing visibility and control and reportability over our operations. And those three factors really, have been key contributors to that that improved margin.

23:19 So taking the, that incremental, financial contribution alongside, a reduction in our cost base, a 29% overhead reduction through the period. We saw an improvement in our EBITDA, which was a loss of an EBITDA loss of just under 2,300,000 last year to a loss of only 310,000 this year. So a real, improving picture on that side. Overall overall, our net loss before tax reduced by nearly 60% to 1,140,000 from previous year of two point seven two.

24:05 And for the first time, the group achieved a positive net operating cash flow of 180,000 during the year. So this direction of travel is very much one of the center planks of our group strategy in that that we want to become profitable

24:23 as a group and start to generate cash at an operational level. And we envisage, that pattern starting to emerge as we move through '24 and into '25.

24:36 So looking at the balance sheet, we achieved the fund raise thanks to our loyal shareholders and new shareholders last April of 1,400,000 net, and that really triggered two factors. It's allowed in the second half our continued investment in products development of products. And as you can see from the balance sheet there, there's been an increase from 708,000 in '22 to just under 1,100,000 in capitalized development assets. And those assets are predominantly in the CEA sector, the sense of growth product, the nurture growth products that really underlays those particular ranges.

25:21 And the second factor was those two key acquisitions which Simon talked about earlier. TONTEC being the first, complementary in the CEA division, earnings enhancing, and the second being the injector, fire barrier acquisition, trademark assets acquisition, which is expected to be near term cash generative, profitable, and scalable. And really, that those two items there are represented by that new figure of goodwill and acquisition intangible assets of 1,400,000 that's appeared, towards the end of f y twenty three. Moving down to non current assets, that is our property and plant and equipment, which has remained relatively stable.

26:09 The investments that we're making there are, offset by our annual depreciation charges, hence the fairly stable line. Importantly, we very recently, agreed a new finance, structure with our incumbent, debt provider, Close Brothers, to provide finance across the group. Previously, it the finance facility was only centered around UK circuit, but we've agreed with them, to provide finance across the group, and that's underpinned by a new 850,000 facility. And we're due to complete,

26:49 contract on that, in in May. So that's that's very much imminent, and that allows us to increase our financial resilience and support future growth throughout the the business. Cash cash position was at the year end increased from 580,000,590,000 to just under 1,000,000. So good increase in in cash during the period. Finally, non current liabilities increased. That's really representative of the deferred consideration elements of those two acquisitions.

27:32 So plan really is to continue reviewing acquisitive and organic opportunities that become available to the group, keep improving efficiencies and delivering better margins, and move towards self cash generative self cash generativity as we move through the year and into, 2025. So if I may come back to Simon to do a group strategy and outlook.

28:04 Thank you, Jim. So just looking ahead with our strategy and outlook per company in the three divisions that we are in and the four companies, TECHNOLOGIES the CA market, our growth is really we're pushing for global distribution and partnerships. As I mentioned earlier, we're looking for that New Zealand, Australia, Middle East, South Africa, and The Americas, as well as The UK and Europe, which are a little bit slower. But pushing out distribution agreements gets us out into the market with their customer base and following on with our designed and developed product and manufacturing capability.

28:49 We also continue investment in new technologies and products, fast paced moving in in technology, and this is where having UK circuits and the synergy there really helps us with what's happening in the world and technology as we manufacture certain and different products in different sectors. Building on our strong customer base, we've got a strong pipeline of opportunity of work that we have quoted, and they really range those quotes from Americas with with glass houses to to South Africa, Morocco,

29:29 and also in Europe and in The UK. So really taking those opportunities and putting the technology in and having that turnkey solution if we're selling a light, a sensor, a software system, or installing it, and that all encompassing if it be a new environment which is being built, we can provide that turnkey solution. So really important.

29:53 Moving on to UK circuits electronic solutions. The growth really here is by acquisition. We've grown organically for many years, so we're looking for opportunities to to to acquire another similar company in the CEM market. We continue to invest in equipment skills and accreditations, which are really important in this market space. Expanding into new markets as we've shown already this year, providing into entertainment market has been really important, and so we continue to do that. So strong profitability platform business within UK circuits and had year on year on growth.

30:40 Injector Fire Barrier with its passive fire protection is organic growth this year, and that's our focus. There's over 11,000 buildings. There's over a 50,000,000,000 market opportunity.

30:55 So investing in accreditations, skill sets of our teams, and processes is really important as we build the structure to to do more installations of the Injecta Cloud product. Building partnerships with blue chip construction companies is also on our radar. We're working with some of the largest construction companies in Europe, And so building those partnership is really important to get longevity and working with them on their estates that they've got to do the remedial work on.

31:31 Near term cash generative, this business, really important. There's good margin, and it's cash generative, which really supports the group in our strategy overall to be cash generative in the short to medium term. There's bigger overall opportunity, as I mentioned, with a £100,000,000,000 market in all three market sectors, and we've got a good pipeline of opportunity with forward order book and also quoted opportunity combined of over £70,000,000.

32:06 I'd like to thank you and the investors, shareholders, customers, and suppliers for supporting us in our strategy, and we look forward to working with you in the future. Thank you very much. That's great. Simon, Jim, Andrew, thank you very much indeed for your presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions using the Q and A tab situated on the top right corner of your screen. While the company take a few moments to review those questions submitted today, I would like to remind you that a recording of this presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published Q and A can be accessed via our investor dashboard. Simon, Jim, Andrew, as you can see, we have received a number of pre submitted and live questions for today's meeting. And Andrew, if I may now hand back to you to chair the Q and A, read out the questions where appropriate to do so, and I'll pick up from you at the end. Thank you. Thank you very much. So, yeah, the first one is, I think we'll pass this one to Simon. In a recent r and s, you've spoken a lot about the restructured group. Can you give an illustration of what you've changed on the ground?

33:09 Yeah. There's been many things that we we've changed on the ground. The first thing that we we did was to cut overheads. As Jim mentioned earlier, it was important to reduce our overhead count from the from the point of expenses, which we reduced around by 60%. So that's the first thing that we did. The second thing was to make sure that we were acquiring and looking at acquisition opportunities. And by doing the acquisition of Tom Tech into our CEA division, started creating revenue and profitability. This company has been going over thirty years and generates increasing revenue year on year, but also cash generative. And that's what we required in that CA division, so that was really important.

33:58 The other division that we acquired the the assets for was the passive fire protection and injector fire barrier. And as I just mentioned in in the previous slide, really important growth market doing existing buildings which are already out there and built and doing the remedial work to make them safe. So this is a growing market. People will hear more and more about it since certain dreadful disasters that we've had in The UK, and the fire safety act is really being driven by the government and put in place, which is the fire safety act of 2021 and also 2022. So really important, that these are being followed, but also the government is putting strong money behind these and supporting them, of billions of pounds to get these buildings safe as well as the private market.

34:50 We've got one here about how have your recent acquisitions integrated into the group. I can tell you that one. In the CA division, we've kind of joined up the sales side, so we've got the same sales teams selling both companies' products, the Tom Tech and the LIGHT SCIENCE TECHNOLOGIES HOLDINGS. We've positioned LIGHT SCIENCE TECHNOLOGIES to really manage the product in house with their got software and electrical engineers, and we've developed the sensors and got high end items. So firstly, what we're doing is kind of integrating those sort of technologies together. So the sensors will talk to the Tomtek control systems and the lighting and things like that. We've moved the old printer circuit boards within the Tontech products over to UK circuits who then assemble the products as well. So Tontech really becomes about sort of UK selling arm of the products and also the tactical on-site implementation.

35:38 LST is really the product management side of it, and that will continue sort of innovating new products and patterns and things like that. On the I f b side, the the injector fire bar side, the pacifier, Obviously, that's a new acquisition. I'm personally spending around about 75% of my time on that, and that's really building a pipeline, building a team as the projects are coming in and sort of growing that business. So I'm kinda taking personal responsibility for that at the moment so it's fully embedded in into the business. So one for you, Jim. The margin growth over the last year has been impressive. Can you speak about what has driven that, and do you expect that growth to continue? Yeah. Sure. As I mentioned, there's there's definitely been a stabilizing of the supply side really through COVID that became very disrupted and lead times were protracted.

36:34 Forward ordering patterns increased times four. What we've seen really through, f y twenty three and into f y twenty four is the stabilizing of that position. Pricing becoming less volatile as well. So that's one key point to make there. Also, we've continued investment, particularly in plants and equipment at UK circuits, the contract electronic electronic manufacturing division. Really, that's to automate and make more efficient the operation up there and to take, you know, the those manual aspects of transferring printed circuit boards from one area to another. It's to automate all that process and with its bought efficiencies and higher throughput.

37:24 And finally, one of the key bits of software that we have in the business is our MRP software, our materials resource production software, and that we have we installed that two years ago, and we phased developments over that time. And really, the benefits are starting to take hold because we've got much better visibility of of supply side, of manufacturing process, and reportability back on that. So those three things combined have contributed to that large increase in in gross margin. Will it continue at at that rate? I don't think it'll continue at that rate, but we do keep looking for continued areas of efficiency improvement. So we would expect a continued improvement in margin, not necessarily at the same rate as as as from the last year, but definitely an improvement.

38:19 One for Simon. Why do you believe that the CA division is now positioned for growth? Position for growth in the CA market really is down to the the products that we've developed in LIGHT SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY over the last couple of years and also done the trials on them, which is really important in the testing with our client base. But also the acquisition of of Tomtek, as I mentioned earlier, revenue increasing year on year is a profitable business, and it has a customer base that it's been dealing with for over that thirty year period. So that bringing that into the the CA division will help us grow in The UK and Ireland, and our strategy for global is through our partnerships and distributors.

39:09 As I mentioned, Australia, Middle East, South Africa, and also the American market where activity we find is higher. So partnerships is really key part of our growth in that CA market. Okay. The next one's got the word revenue in it, this one will go over to Jim. What are the market dynamics that are driving Centimeters growth? How do you envisage revenue split to change in the coming years? Yeah. That's an important one with with the acquisition, in the, pacifier division and also TECHNOLOGIES HOLDINGS the CEA. So in the in the contract electronics manufacturing division, which is still the base for the group currently, There's definitely been a a reshoring of of manufacturing.

39:58 I think that's driven by some of the worldwide geopolitical issues with China, Taiwan. So, you know, that's certainly a key factor, the reassuring. And, you know, we are seeing organic growth in the customer base. As well as Simon mentioned, you know, we're on the lookout for acquisition targets there. We are growing that business organically and continue to do so. But how does that look moving forward through the rest of '24 and into '25? Well, we would expect to see, in particular, the the passive fire protection division starting to rebalance the contributions of the group. And then as the synergies between TECHNOLOGIES HOLD, the the the CEA, the controlled environment agriculture sector as well that that starts to deliver. So definitely, a rebalancing will start to be seen in f y twenty four, but even more so in f y twenty five.

41:04 Okay. Thank you, Jim. On a similar theme, but this time on five area, what are the typical hurdles that you see when you're trying to secure contracts in the fire protection division? Is it slow moving customer organizations, I. E, public bodies? Yeah. I think there's a lots of new legislation in that market, and what you've kinda got is a whole new raft of fire engineers and building control responsibilities have changed. And, you know, post ground floor people, there's a general reluctance to kind of take responsibility and kind of make decisions on remediation projects. So it does take them longer to get over the line. What I found though is that we're really well placed, you know. We've we've got quite a good front end of the business. We can engage with the blue chip contractors in a professional manner. We can help them get them over the line.

41:52 And, you know, they certainly see the fact that we're attached to a PLC as a very positive thing, you know, from a government's perspective in construction. This is really important. So there's an estimated 20. We're told an estimated twenty years projects to work at. So even though they're slow coming through, there are plenty of them still coming through, and I'll do think that we're very well placed to kind of get them being part of our PLC. The other question from David on sort of really talking about the time share price progress with sort of executive pay. Jim, I think this one you can take some things. Sure. We've recently strengthened our board with the appointment of of doctor Graham Cooley, who's got thirteen years experience of running an aim listed PLC ITM power. And he brings with him a great deal of of experience that he can benefit into Life Science Technologies PLC.

42:55 And this is one of the key things that that we have been talking about that very much the plan is to start linking, executive and senior management performance to targets. And, you you know, that's very much on our agenda. It's great to have the assistance and experience of of doctor Cooley in that regard, and it's very much on our our our agenda to, to make happen as we move through this year. We've got one from them about how do you manage the different sales channels and process across the divisions. It's obviously very unique. We do let the MDs of each of the companies run those businesses. We're not there to tell them how to run the business. What we try and do is almost work for them. What tools do you need to do the job? And, of course, if things get tough, we'll step in and we'll help out. You know, it's very much down as you if you identify, they're very unique. They're very different. So we've got good people that run those businesses, and we support them as as a holistic. There are certain things like, you know, there's centralized marketing, finance, and the fuel health and safety to make sure we've got high health and safety standards that we've that we've got across the group, but everything else is kind of managed at a company level. And it that support allows the managing directors really to focus on those businesses on a permanent basis.

44:15 One for you, Simon. Can you talk about your international strategy? Where do you perceive the most demand and how you capitalize? I know some of this was covered in your slides. Yeah. Absolutely. I think as I mentioned, CA market will very much the strategy is to grow through distribution network and and partnerships globally to strengthen our position and and get our foothold in the growing markets, as I mentioned, Australia, Middle East, South Africa, and The Americas market. Here in The UK, we're doing that through Tomtek's network and thirty years experience and bringing those together. Having the two companies gives us a wealth of experienced individuals as well as two really good names in the market. In the CEM and the PFP division, they're solely UK based companies.

45:03 And so our strategy there, as I mentioned earlier, for for for growth is to focus on acquisitions for the Centimeters side and PFP, the passive fire protection, Injectify Barret is just to focus on The UK. So it's very much focusing on the CA market to to go globally and and look at markets which are growing and taking the technology to be able to control the growing and increasing demand with food security, climate change, and those extreme weather patterns that we've been having. So, Jim, with the focus on being cash flow positive in the near term, what milestones should we anticipate to see if there are any operational changes needed?

45:49 Well, the first thing is that, you you know, we do expect to keep a good hold on our cost base. We've made some great achievements last year in that regard, and we do expect that to continue. But really importantly is conversion of of the pipeline. Injectify barrier, the the quotations that we're doing range from a £100,000 up to in excess of a million for single jobs. And, you know, that's a really important area for us as we move through the year to convert that pipeline because the margins are solid and, you know, the cash cash positioning on that, the the the way that we profile cash in and cash out is highly beneficial to groups. So that's absolutely key.

46:38 UK circuits to continue doing what it's doing and growing, increasing margins and efficiencies and increasing revenue. And and then as as the CEA comp controlling one agriculture sector division starts to starts to really bed in with the TECHNOLOGIES synergies, then we would expect conversion of pipeline in that regard. So that they're the real key milestones that we would expect to see as we move through '24 and into '25 whilst controlling our cost base. Okay. Lastly, unless there are any more, Simon, could you tell us about the anticipated progress of the AIM share price, please? Yeah. Absolutely.

47:24 A year ago, we were we're sitting around the one and a half p share price. Today, we're now over two and a half p. So we're we're focusing very much on talking to investors to become shareholders. I think it's really important to build our profile in the city as well as retail investors. And by doing that, it's about getting more news out into the market. And I hope that you've seen more recently this year that we've got a lot more news coming out in the market, RNS' that we have done, which show what we're doing within the three divisions that we have. They're all growing. There's all lots of work going on as you've seen in 2023 with a record breaking year, and we hope to continue that and get that news out there, which I think will then show, and hopefully, our investors will will see this, an increase in share price as we move forward throughout the year.

48:27 That's great. Simon, Jim, Andrew, thank you for addressing all those questions for investors today. And of course, the company can review all questions submitted today, and we will publish those responses on the investment company platform. But before we direct investors to provide you with their feedback, which is particularly important to the company, Simon, could I please ask you for a few closing comments? Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you very much. So for us, 2023 was a record breaking year in in turnover. Our margins increased, which helped our operating profit. We want to continue doing this with the two acquisitions that we achieved the end of last year, but didn't see much of that in our revenue in 2023, but will do in 2024.

49:13 So we see future growth in the CA market as well as the passive fire protection in injector fire barrier. So we're excited about the future. We've got the right management in place, and we've got a good board to lead us to the next step in Richard Mills and doctor Graham Cooley who are supporting us in our strategy moving forward. Simon, Jim, Andrew, thank you once again for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as you will now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order that the board can better understand your views and expectations? This will only take a few moments to complete, and I'm sure will be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of LIGHT SCIENCE TECHNOLOGIES HOLDINGS PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good afternoon to you all.

50:04 Thank you very much. Thank you.