LONDON, May 20, 2024 -- Arqit Quantum Inc. (Arqit), a leader in quantum safe encryption, today announced its operational and financial results for the six months ended 31 March 2024.

The following is a summary of Arqit’s operating results for the six month period ended 31 March 2024. Comparison is made, where applicable, to the comparable period ended 31 March 2023.

Generated $119 thousand in Revenue for the first half of fiscal year 2024 as compared to $19 thousand for the comparable period in 2023.

Arqit generated Revenue during the period from Arqit SKA (PaaS), Arqit NetworkSecureTM (firewall) and professional services. Nine customers during the period increased or renewed existing contracts. All contracts due to expire during the period were renewed. No contracts were terminated. Arqit executed on three contracts for Arqit SKA (PaaS)™, four contracts for Arqit NetworkSecureTM and four contracts for professional services.

For the comparable period in 2023, Arqit SKA Platform™ Revenue totalled $19 thousand from two contracts.

Administrative Expenses1 for the period were $16.8 million versus $25.4 million for the comparable period in 2023. Lower employee costs resulting from headcount reduction and attrition were the primary drivers of lower Administrative Expenses. Arqit ended the period with headcount of 125 employees versus 170 at 31 March 2023. Pro forma for cost reduction activities initiated after the close of the financial period, Arqit’s pro forma headcount will be 81. Administrative expense for the period includes a $293 thousand non-cash credit for share based compensation versus a $8.3 million non-cash charge for the comparable period in 2023.

Operating loss for the period was $16.6 million versus a loss of $25.4 million for the first half of fiscal year 2023. The variance in operating loss between periods primarily reflects lower Administrative Expenses resulting from cost actions.

Loss before tax was $16.1 million. Adjusted loss before tax was $16.1 million2 which in management’s view reflects the underlying business performance once the non-cash change in warrant value is deducted from loss before tax. For the comparable period in fiscal year 2023, profit before tax was $12.6 million and adjusted loss before tax was $34.7m million. The variance between periods is primarily due to the change in fair value of warrants and cost actions.

During the six months ended March 31, 2024, Arqit determined that its satellite assets were no longer considered as “held for sale”. As a result, the satellite assets have been fully impaired, and an impairment loss was recognized as part of “loss from discontinued operations, net of tax” for the six months ended March 31, 2024.

Arqit ended the first half of fiscal 2024 with a cash and cash equivalents of $21.3 million versus a cash balance of $44.5 million as of Arqit’s 30 September 2023 fiscal year end.

During the period 4,481,825 restricted share units were granted under Arqit’s equity incentive plan. A total of 10,280,849 restricted share units and 8,004,817 options, have been granted to employees, officers and directors under the plan to date.