Shares in MeaTech bounce 18 per cent despite widening losses

Shares in MeaTech were up 18.75 per cent to $4.75; shares in Burcon NutraScience were down 7.8 per cent  to CAD$0.64; and shares in Ocado were up 15.3 per cent to 908.60p.

Shares in MeaTech were up 18.75 per cent to $4.75 in the week ending June 3 despite reporting widening losses in its latest financial figures, according to the Future Food Finance FoodTech Index.

The uplift in share price came in the week it reported its Q1 figures, in which it reported a £4.99m loss in the quarter, compared to a £3.66m loss the year previous.

Despite the weekly share price bounce, MeaTech’s shares have lost nearly half their value since December, when they were priced at $8.62.

The Israel-based cultivated firm said the increase in losses reflected increased investment in R&D as well as marketing. Marketing expenses totalled $1.1m, compared to $0.3m the year previous while R&D expenses came in at $2.1m, compared to $1.1m the year before.

Arik Kaufman, MeaTech's CEO, said: "In just the first quarter of 2022, we have shown our rapid pace of progress toward commercialization. Our recent technological and scientific advancements and business activities have put us firmly on a path toward scaling our unique solution for the sustainable production of a wide variety of cultured meat products."  

In December last year, MeaTech unveiled the largest cell-based steak, weighing 104 grams, to be made using bioprinting techniques.

The company’s first venture into the market will be to sell the cultured fat as an ingredient for other products, with a pilot plant planned for 2022.

It comes as companies across the world are racing to produce cell-cultured meat, arguing that creating meat without raising and slaughtering livestock is better for the environment, animal welfare and potentially health.

Earlier this year, MeaTech said its subsidiary, Peace of Meat, would be working with Scotland’s Enough, a firm focused on fungi fermentation using renewable feedstock, as it looks to bring hybrid meat products to market made with cultivated fat.

Also this year, it announced that it would be opening a US office, as it looks to ramp up its activity in the US.

Elsewhere, shares in Burcon NutraScience were down 7.8 per cent  to CAD$0.64 in the week it inked a deal with software firm TheoryMesh, in which Burcon  NutraScience will leverage its platform to digitise its plant protein research and processing.

And finally, shares in Ocado were up 15.3 per cent to 908.60p in the week it warned that its joint venture with Marks & Spencer will see earnings and sales weighed down by growing pressure on customers’ spending.

Ocado Retail, which is owned 50-50 by the two firms, said sales fell further in recent weeks as shoppers bought less to cope with the cost-of-living crisis.

It said sales declined by 8 per cent in the quarter to April 25, compared with a 5.7 per cent fall in the previous quarter.