Final Results
PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release 24th June, 2008
RESULTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st DECEMBER 2007
HIGHLIGHTS
* Commercialisation
*
+ Grants of patent for TMT1 in Europe and USA.
+ Earliest patents to 2021 with broad claims across isobaric tandem mass
tagging.
+ TMT® license with Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. - a major milestone
including signature fees, contract manufacturing payments, royalties
and sales milestones.
+ Proteome Sciences retains high value/high volume custom TMTcalibratorâ„¢
and TMT Reference Materialsâ„¢.
+ Major TMT® product launch in June at ASMS, Denver by Thermo Fisher.
+ Global leader in chemoproteomics, Cellzome, adopts TMT®.
+ ProteoSHOP® revenue increased 388% in 2007.
+ Conversion of stroke research licence into full licences slower but in
progress.
+ Intronn Inc. assets sold to VIRxSYS Corp in all stock transaction.
Proteome Sciences retains its 43% shareholding. Intronn to participate
in upside value of VIRxSYS through preferred stock.
+ ISO9001 process to be completed Q3, 2008.
* Financial
* Reduced loss for period £5.25m (2006 : £5.64m).
* Unaudited revenue £0.81m for 5 months to May, 2008.
* Cash used in operations £4.17m (2006 : £4.96m).
* Cash balance £0.53m (2006 : £0.30m).
* Additional £2m working capital from increased loan facility.
* Consistent and predictable cash burn
* Current Outlook
* Outstanding prospects for isobaric tandem mass tagging and TMT®.
* Delivering rapid biomarker and assay solutions to meet needs of pharma and
diagnostics.
* Strong interest and enquiries for ProteoSHOP®.
* Proprietary biomarkers benefiting from `in-house' development.
* Sustainable and rising revenue from all activities.
Commenting on these results, Christopher Pearce, Chief Executive of Proteome
Sciences, said:
"A number of major milestones have been achieved, the most important of which
are the grant of the TMT1 patents in Europe and the USA with broad claims
across the field of isobaric mass tagging and the exclusive license agreement
with Thermo Fisher Scientific for TMT®.
These have crystallised Proteome Sciences' position as global leaders in
chemical tagging with mass spectrometry and, at the same time, we have
established ourselves at the forefront of biomarker discovery, validation and
qualification and rapid assay development.
The workflows and tools that have been developed transforms the time and costs
in biomarker and assay development, reducing it from years to a number of
weeks. We consider that these new solutions will have a profound effect across
drug development, disease management and the advances in personalised medicine.
We are most encouraged by the emerging profile and importance of biomarkers and
we strongly believe that we are exceptionally placed to capitalise on this
through rapid revenue growth from all aspects of our business; the ProteoSHOP®
services division, TMT® and our growing portfolio of proprietary disease
biomarkers."
ENDS
Attached: Full text of Chairman's statement, consolidated profit and loss
account, consolidated balance sheet, consolidated cashflow statement and notes
to the financial information.
For further information please contact:
Proteome Sciences plc
www.proteomics.com Tel: +44 (0)1932 865065
Christopher Pearce, Chief Executive Email: christopher.pearce@proteomics.com
James Malthouse, Finance Director Email: james.malthouse@proteomics.com
Public Relations
IKON Associates Coast Communications
Adrian Shaw Matt Baldwin
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Nominated Adviser
Landsbanki Securities (UK) Limited Tel: +44 (0)20 7426 9000
Shaun Dobson
Claes Spång
Notes to Editors:
About Proteome Sciences:
Proteome Sciences plc (LSE : PRM) is a global leader in applied proteomics,
using high sensitivity proprietary techniques to detect and characterise
differentially expressed proteins in diseases for diagnostic, prognostic and
therapeutic applications.
ProteoSHOP® provides integrated proteomic services for biomarker discovery,
validation and measurement in clinical trials and in vitro diagnostics. Key
features include the proprietary isobaric tandem mass tag technology TMT® for
accurate and reliable biomarker quantification and the ability to rapidly
develop highly reproducible quantitative biomarker assays.
The main focus of its research addresses neurological, oncology and
cardiovascular conditions and has discovered blood biomarkers in stroke, brain
damage, solid organ transplant rejection and Alzheimer's disease. Proteome
Sciences is based in Cobham, UK with facilities in London and Frankfurt.
Dear Shareholder,
The year ended 31st December 2007 has been successful and productive for our
Company and the momentum that was established then has carried over and
increased in 2008, with further major new technical and commercial milestones
being attained.
The profile of biomarkers has risen dramatically over the last five years as
they increasingly become an essential requirement for the development of new
diagnostic and prognostic assays and for determining the efficacy and safety of
new drugs. The discovery and validation of biomarkers, however, has continued
to be a highly time consuming and costly exercise.
Proteome Sciences has developed a range of ground breaking isobaric mass
tagging reagents, TMT®, with workflows that are transforming the discovery,
validation and routine measurement of protein biomarkers by mass spectrometry.
Of equal importance, the ProteoSHOP® TMT® workflows also provide novel time and
cost-effective ways to overcome the challenges of immunoassay development,
radically reducing the development time for biomarker assays from several years
down to a matter of weeks. These features address the increasing requirements
of the global regulatory system, led by the FDA in the USA and the EMEA in
Europe, to use biomarkers and biomarker data to accelerate and improve drug
development and to support the advances in personalised medicine.
In May and November 2007, patents for isobaric tandem mass tagging (TMT1) were
granted in Europe and the USA respectively, with the earliest patents extending
to 2021. These provide broad claims across the field of isobaric tandem mass
tagging and the ability to exploit TMT® in the major global jurisdictions, both
as a set of products in their own right and also for third party licences for
the manufacture or use of any type of isobaric tandem mass tags. In April 2008
Proteome Sciences completed the commercialisation of TMT® through an exclusive
license agreement with Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., a global leader supplying
scientific equipment and reagents. Proteome Sciences retained the use of TMT®
for its own research as well as custom labelling and assay development under
its ProteoSHOP® services division.
As a result of the increased marketing emphasis, ProteoSHOP® services division
revenue experienced a considerable uplift in 2007. This will be further
enhanced by TMT Reference Materials™ and TMTcalibrator™. Such TMT® applications
are high value, high volume revenue applications that will address and open up
substantial new markets and opportunities. Feedback from the pharma and life
sciences industry has been very positive and this has been reflected in a
strong growth in revenue. This has continued into 2008 in which unaudited
revenue in the five months to 31st May 2008 was £805,000, including income from
the TMT® license agreement.
The combination of the developments highlighted above transforms the prospects
for Proteome Sciences and from which we expect sustainable and rising revenue
from all areas of our activities.
In 2007, over 70 patents were granted across 13 patent families including TMT®,
Sensitizer®, stroke, organ transplant rejection and cancer and new patent
applications have been filed for mass labels, stroke, Alzheimer's disease,
renal transplant, brain damage and Huntington's disease.
Reagents
Whilst waiting for the European and US patent applications for TMT® isobaric
tandem mass tagging to be granted in 2007, Proteome Sciences was able to use
that time to develop and optimise the chemical synthesis processes for the full
range of TMT® isobaric tandem mass tags (TMTzero™, TMTduplex™ and TMTsixplex™).
With this process completed and in anticipation of the impending outlicense of
TMT® products, substantial amounts of TMT® reagents were produced in order to
enable the licensee to have materials available for an early product launch.
As a consequence, Thermo Fisher Scientific was able to have TMT® products
available at the ASMS meeting for mass spectrometry in Denver, USA, the global
showpiece event in mass spectrometry, less than eight weeks after signing the
exclusive licence agreement. The high profile launch started with a well
attended user meeting and was accompanied and endorsed by eight scientific
posters/ papers presented by Proteome Sciences and a number of global
scientific leaders in the field, confirming the utility and performance of TMT®
isobaric mass tags across a broad range of different applications. Thermo
Fisher started shipping TMT® products in June.
Under the terms of the license, Proteome Sciences will manufacture the TMT
reagents exclusively for Thermo Fisher Scientific, which will market and sell
them globally through their product lines. Proteome Sciences receives a mixture
of signature fees, contract manufacturing payments and royalties on sales with
additional sales milestone payments from the license. The earliest TMT® patents
extend to 2021 and the license enables Thermo Fisher Scientific to provide
third-party commercial licenses for use of any type of isobaric tandem mass
tags. Proteome Sciences expects strong double-digit growth in the market for
isobaric mass tags products over the next five years.
Ahead of completion of the TMT® license agreement in March, a letter of
opposition was lodged at the European Patent Office (EPO) to Proteome Sciences
issued, granted and enforceable patent for TMT® in Europe. Before grant, the
European TMT® patent went through an extensive examination process and was
subjected to anonymous `third party observations' at that time. These were
dismissed .
Following thorough review by Proteome Sciences and its patent counsel, it was
confirmed that the opposition does not raise any grounds of objection that
prejudice the validity of the patent. A highly robust and comprehensive
response was submitted to the EPO in June 2008.
This does not in any way affect the existing status of the TMT® patent in
Europe which is issued and enforceable and which means that any manufacture or
use of products utilising isobaric tandem mass tags that come under the broader
scope of the TMT® patent may need licenses from Proteome Sciences.
Having recognised the improvements in speed and reproducibility of programmes
with TMT®sixplex, Cellzome AG from Heidelberg, Germany, one of the global
leaders in protein-drug and protein-protein interactions adopted TMT® for its
chemo-proteomics platform in April 2008. This moves TMT® into new high value
applications in drug discovery/development, an area highly complementary to the
initial applications envisaged in biomarker discovery, validation and assay
development.
TMT® products provide a patented technology that delivers fast, flexible and
cost-efficient workflows using mass spectrometry. The future for TMT® looks
outstanding.
ProteoSHOP®
The ProteoSHOP® services division experienced a considerable improvement in
revenue and activity in 2007, with a near fourfold increase in turnover.
Continued progress is expected for the future.
The increased emphasis on marketing ProteoSHOP® has been a significant factor
behind this success, and this is very much a continuing process. The
introduction of the full range of TMT® isobaric tandem mass tags has been
responsible for stimulating considerable further interest and opportunities.
Under the license agreement with Thermo Fisher Scientific, Proteome Sciences
retains the use of TMT® for its own research as well as custom labelling and
assay development for its customers using TMTcalibratorâ„¢ and TMT Reference
Materialsâ„¢. By relying on Thermo Fisher's comprehensive sales channels for
volume catalogue products, Proteome Sciences can focus on custom labelling
services and products. Considerable demand is projected for these high-value/
high volume bespoke applications and as such they should substantially expand
the size and market value of isobaric mass tagging technology, services and
applications.
Two new products announced in 2007, TMTcalibratorâ„¢ and TMT Reference Materials
â„¢, have been developed with specific applications for key areas of unmet need:
TMTcalibratorâ„¢ enables the absolute quantitation of multiple biomarker proteins
in a single experiment by providing multipoint calibration curves for all
proteins of interest.
TMT Reference Materialsâ„¢ allow the accurate relative quantitation of hundreds
to thousands of proteins in large and complex biomarker programmes.
The effects of these will be far reaching commercially and in research.
Clinical laboratories typically use reference materials to calibrate and
certify assays. Until now, proteomics lacked the materials to benchmark
performance. TMT Reference Materialsâ„¢ are the solution and provide a defined
proteome reference for blood, plasma, urine, tissue and other samples. Using
this as a control sample, it is now possible for scientists to have quality
control and share and replicate their results worldwide. TMT Reference
Materialsâ„¢ will significantly speed up discovery and development of biomarkers.
We are developing a range of universal standards using TMT Reference Materialsâ„¢
and also offer production of custom reference standards for individual
customers under the ProteoSHOP® services division.
Historically, the cost and timescales for developing multiplex biomarker assays
in drug development has been a barrier to widespread adoption in the
pharmaceutical industry. Antibody-based approaches typically cost between $1m
and $3m per protein and take up to 18 to 36 months to implement. Using TMT® in
combination with other ProteoSHOP® technology, multiplex assays can be rapidly
and inexpensively developed in several months. Here again, Proteome Sciences is
providing solutions to a major and growing unmet need that opens up substantial
new revenue and market opportunities.
ProteoSHOP® has experienced high levels of interest and enquiries in 2008, in
particular from the meetings/conferences attended in Philadelphia, Manchester,
Cyprus, Denver and San Diego and this is expected to significantly increase
orders for our services division.
As a consequence of the high levels of activity at our Frankfurt facility, the
completion of the ISO 9001 certification process is expected in the third
quarter.
Biomarkers
Biomarkers are increasingly becoming an essential requirement for the
development of novel diagnostic and prognostic assays and for determining the
efficacy and safety of new drugs. The goal of our proteomics research
programmes has been to discover and validate differentially expressed protein
biomarkers in major human diseases for exactly these purposes. The key role
that biomarkers have established is being driven by the ever growing
requirement of the global regulatory systems led by the FDA in the USA, to use
biomarkers and biomarker data not only for diagnostic applications, but to
accelerate and improve drug development and to support the advances in
personalised medicine.
Proteome Sciences continues to be at the forefront in the development and
application of its ProteoSHOP® workflows to deliver rapid biomarker discovery,
validation and assay solutions for its customers and its own internal research
activities. Our proprietary programmes have been amongst the first to benefit
from the development of TMT® workflows and their integration with other
complementary technologies. This accelerates biomarker discovery and
validation, and allows us to re-visit existing samples and data with much
greater speed and coverage. This can be seen from the eight scientific
abstracts/posters presented recently at ASMS covering a broad spread of
different applications from both our internal data and results and those from
the programmes of a number of global scientific leaders in the field with whom
we have collaborations.
The improvements offered by TMT® are best illustrated in stroke. The discovery
and validation work in our programmes has spanned a ten year period with around
20 biomarkers identified. Towards the end of 2007, one of the original sample
sets was re-visited using TMT® and other ProteoSHOP® workflows. In under ten
weeks we were able to reproduce the great majority of differentially expressed
proteins previously discovered, confirming their utility, but at the same time
considerably increasing the total number of differentially expressed proteins
visualised using our state of the art discovery tools and workflows.
Extensive validation of our stroke marker panels has been undertaken and this
has resulted in four research licenses for high throughput stroke with global
leaders in clinical diagnostics. Our research continues to generate new data
and biomarkers to enhance the IP position and to further improve the
performance of the stroke panel for the early detection of stroke and the
management and treatment of the condition. Progress is being made by the
licensees, albeit at a slower pace than we would like, and we remain confident
that the research licensees previously announced should convert into
full-commercial licenses as the testing and integration processes come to
completion in 2008.
In 2007 we decided to concentrate our own biomarker programmes primarily on
neurological/ neurodegenerative conditions where strong additional results have
flowed through from our proprietary research, in particular for brain damage
and Alzheimer's disease. Considerable media attention has focused on the
subsequent data following the high profile publication on Alzheimer's disease
(AD) in the scientific journal Brain. The 36 differentially expressed proteins
discovered in blood are being evaluated for their utility for diagnosis and
monitoring AD.
Using post-mortem CSF as a model of massive brain injury and cell death,
results were published from our collaborative biomarker research programme in
CSF that identified 299 proteins, of which 172 were not previously known to be
present in CSF. The identification of these proteins, when combined with
validation in plasma, demonstrates the power of this approach to discover brain
injury biomarkers in blood and the potential to measure those in diagnostic
tests which address a range of different neurodegenerative disorders and the
way to utilise and test these biomarkers for novel diagnostic, prognostic and
therapeutic applications with our ProteoSHOP® toolbox.
Intronn Inc. / Veri-Q Inc.
As previously notified to shareholders last September, VIRxSYS Corporation
acquired the core technology and assets of Intronn Inc. (a company in which
Proteome Sciences retains a 43 per cent shareholding) in exchange for the
issuance of preference stock in VIRxSYS.
The combination of the technologies is highly synergistic with SMaRTâ„¢ providing
a strong pipeline of RNA products for the VIRxSYS lentiviral vector delivery
platform. By virtue of an all stock transaction, both companies directly
participate from the considerable upside potential of the combined platforms
and remove duplication of costs and effort.
Further results are expected in 2008 from the Phase II trials in HIV for
VRX496, VIRxSYS' lead application using lentiviral vectors. Shareholders will
be appraised of significant developments at VIRxSYS.
The programme to develop further antibodies against the deprotecting groups at
Veri-Q has been completed. These have been lodged at the American Type Culture
Collection for secure storage, and a marketing plan and strategy to exploit the
commercial value from deprotection impurities in synthetic oligonucleotides is
under preparation. Completion of antibody production was later than
anticipated, but it is timely given the increased focus on synthetic nucleic
acid as therapeutic agents in RNAi and antisense drugs, and as pharmacogenonic
assays are being developed for widespread use. With antibodies secured and the
marketing strategy refocused, Veri-Q is ideally placed to leverage value from
these developments.
Results
The financial results for the twelve month period ended 31st December 2007 show
a loss before taxation of £5,464,433 compared with £6,007,799 in 2006. Non cash
costs, (depreciation and a charge under IFRS 2 for share-based payment costs)
were £759,800 against £754,343 in 2006.
The loss on ordinary activities after taxation for the twelve month period
ended 31st December 2007 was £5,252,029 (2006 : £5,637,690). The cash used in
operations for the year was £4,166,151 (2006 : £4,460,913).
At the year end, cash in hand and held on deposit stood at £530,195 (2006 : £
304,225).
The cash spend in 2007 has remained consistent with that of previous years and
this pattern is expected to continue in 2008. The licences announced and the
commercialisation and grant income anticipated should provide significant cash
inflows for the Company and have a positive effect on its financial
requirements. A loan facility of up to £6 million has been made available to
the Company from C.D.J. Pearce, the Chief Executive.
The directors have assumed that the timing of the cash inflows from the
anticipated commercial income will be appropriate to meet the cash requirements
of the business; however, due to the current rate of cash expenditure, the
timing of receipt of the aforementioned cash inflows remains important and
therefore there can be no certainty regarding the availability of funding for
the next 12 months.
Having regard to the assumptions made in respect of the timing of receipt of
the anticipated commercial income, combined with grant income, and other cash
inflows, including the loan facility of up to £6 million made available by
C.D.J. Pearce, the directors continue to adopt the going concern basis in
preparing the accounts, and accordingly the financial statements do not contain
any adjustments that would result if sufficient commercial income were not to
be received on a timely basis.
In relation to the additional loan facility from C.D.J. Pearce, the Directors
of the Company, (with the exception of C.D.J. Pearce who, in view of his
interest in the transaction, has taken no part in the consideration thereof),
having consulted with its nominated adviser, consider that the terms of this
transaction are fair and reasonable insofar as shareholders are concerned.
As previously announced, the Company filed a claim on 29th December 2005 in the
District Court of Frankfurt am Main ("the Court") against Sanofi-Aventis
Deutschland GmbH ("Sanofi-Aventis") under which it is seeking damages of up to
€30 million for, amongst other things, the breach of certain warranties
provided by Sanofi-Aventis at the time of the acquisition of Xzillion
Proteomics GmbH & Co KG (now Proteome Sciences R&D GmbH & Co KG) on 4th July
2002. Having filed for a declatory judgement that was initially dismissed, an
appeal has been lodged and has been set down for a hearing in June 2009. Full
provision of all costs arising in 2007 in connection with the claim has been
made in the 2007 financial statements. Whilst it is not possible to predict the
outcome of this matter, the Directors are continuing to pursue this action
vigorously and will keep shareholders informed of material developments.
Current Outlook
The exclusive license agreement with Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. for TMT®
products in April marked a major milestone in the Company's development. The
agreement provides Proteome Sciences with a strong cash flow, which transforms
the prospects with sustainable, rising revenue from all areas of our
activities. This confirms the value and importance of isobaric tandem mass
tagging and allows Proteome Sciences to concentrate its resources on its
proprietary biomarker programmes, on ProteoSHOP® with high value, high volume
custom labeling with TMTcalibratorâ„¢ and TMT Reference Materialsâ„¢ and from the
development of further tagging reagents and applications with its licensee.
TMT® workflows deliver rapid biomarker and assay solutions seamlessly from
discovery, through validation to clinical development. These will accelerate
the utility and application of biomarkers in drug development and diagnostics
to make personalised medicine a reality.
This provides the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry with a much needed
solution to the long standing challenges in biomarker validation and
qualification and, against this background, the prospects for our business look
most encouraging.
Steve Harris
Chairman 24th June, 2008
Year ended Year ended
31st December 2007 31st December 2006
£ £
Continuing operations
Revenue 265,593 68,469
Cost of sales (112,976) (47,928)
__________ __________
Gross profit 152,617 20,541
Administrative expenses (5,449,722) (5,754,536)
Share of results of associates 123,928 (282,002)
__________ __________
Operating loss (5,173,177) (6,015,997)
Investment revenues 10,839 44,835
Finance costs (302,095) (36,637)
__________ __________
Loss before taxation (5,464,433) (6,007,799)
Tax 212,404 370,109
__________ __________
Loss for the period from continuing (5,252,029) (5,637,690)
operations
__________ __________
Attributed to shareholders of the (5,252,029) (5,637,690)
company
__________ __________
Loss per share
Basic and diluted (3.99p) (4.29p)
__________ __________
Unaudited consolidated statement of recognised income and expense
For the year ended 31st December 2007
Year ended Year ended
31st December 2007 31st December 2006
£ £
Exchange differences on translation of 30,773 (93,375)
foreign operations
__________ __________
Net income/(expense) recognised 30,773 (93,375)
directly in equity
Loss for the period (5,252,029) (5,637,690)
__________ __________
Total recognised income and expense for (5,221,256) (5,730,065)
the period
__________ __________
2007 2006
£ £
Non-current assets
Goodwill 4,218,241 4,218,241
Property, plant and equipment 438,413 546,509
Interest in associates 777,577 652,813
Other investments - -
__________ __________
5,434,231 5,417,563
__________ __________
Current assets
Inventories 106,529 -
Trade and other receivables 562,410 673,998
Cash and cash equivalents 530,195 304,225
__________ __________
1,199,134 978,223
__________ __________
Total assets 6,633,365 6,395,786
__________ __________
Current liabilities
Trade and other payables (1,097,784) (984,036)
Current tax liabilities (42,673) (34,762)
Short-term borrowings (5,936,599) (1,634,637)
Short-term provisions (1,235,039) (648,000)
Deferred grant income (261,663) (268,855)
__________ __________
(8,573,758) (3,570,290)
__________ __________
Net current liabilities (7,374,624) (2,592,067)
__________ __________
Non-current liabilities
Deferred grant income (188,043) (188,043)
Long-term provisions (36,531) (49,282)
__________ __________
(224,574) (237,325)
__________ __________
Total liabilities (8,798,332) (3,807,615)
__________ __________
Net (liabilities)/assets (2,164,967) 2,588,171
__________ __________
Equity
Share capital 1,314,654 1,314,654
Share premium account 29,150,563 29,150,563
Equity reserve 1,834,832 1,795,971
Other reserve 10,755,000 10,755,000
Translation reserve (61,602) (92,375)
Retained loss (45,158,414) (40,335,642)
__________ __________
Total (deficit)/equity (2,164,967) 2,588,171
__________ __________
Group Group
Year ended Year ended
31st December 31st December
2007 2006
£ £
Cash flows from operating activities
Cash used in operations (4,166,151) (4,460,913)
Interest paid (302,094) (36,637)
Tax refunded 375,010 891,968
__________ __________
Net cash outflow from operating (4,093,235) (3,605,582)
activities
__________ __________
Cash flows from investing activities
Purchases of property, plant and (23,277) (357,411)
equipment
Interest received 10,839 44,735
__________ __________
Net cash outflow from investing (12,438) (312,576)
activities
__________ __________
Financing activities
Proceeds on issue of shares - 4,934
New loans raised 4,301,962 1,634,637
__________ __________
Net cash from financing activities 4,301,962 1,639,571
__________ __________
Net increase/(decrease) in cash and 196,289 (2,278,587)
cash equivalents
Cash and cash equivalents at 304,225 2,587,155
beginning of period
Effect of foreign exchange rate 29,681 (4,343)
changes
__________ __________
Cash and cash equivalents at end of 530,195 304,225
period
__________ __________
1. The preceding financial information does not constitute statutory accounts
as defined in Section 240 of the Companies Act 1985. The financial information
for the year to 31st December 2006 (the comparative financial information) is
extracted from the statutory accounts for that year but differs from the
information reported in those financial statements as the comparative financial
information has been restated in respect of conversion to IFRS. These accounts,
upon which the auditors issued an unqualified opinion, and which did not
contain any statement under Section 237(2) or (3) of the Companies Act 1985,
have been delivered to the Registrar of Companies.
The statutory accounts for the year ended 31st December 2007 will be finalised
on the basis of the financial information presented by the Directors in this
preliminary announcement and will be posted to shareholders on the 27th June,
2008. After that time, they will also be available at the Company's registered
office: Coveham House, Downside Bridge Road, Cobham, Surrey KT11 3EP.
2. As set out in the results section of the Chairman's Statement in this
preliminary announcement, a material uncertainty is identified regarding the
company's ability to continue as a going concern. Whilst it is anticipated that
the company will receive an unqualified audit report for the year ended 31st
December, 2007, the audit report will contain the following additional
paragraph:
"Emphasis of matter - Going Concern
Without qualifying our opinion, we draw attention to the disclosures made in
note 3 of the financial statements concerning the Group's ability to continue
as a going concern. The Group incurred a net loss of £5,252,029 during the year
ended 31st December 2007, from operating activities of £4,093,235. This, along
with other matters as set forth in note 3 (which are set out in the results
section of this preliminary announcement), indicates the existence of a
material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt about the company's
ability to continue as a going concern. The financial statements do not include
the adjustments that would result if the company was unable to continue as a
going concern."
3. Following the loss for the year of £5,252,029, the Directors do not
recommend the payment of a dividend.
4. The calculation of the loss per share for the year ended 31st December, 2007
is based on the loss for the financial period of £5,252,029 and on 131,465,447
Shares, being the number of shares in issue and ranking for dividend during the
period (year ended 31st December 2006 - re-stated loss £5,637,690, weighted
average number of Ordinary Shares in issue and ranking for dividend,
131,453,301
International Financial Reporting Standard 33 requires presentation of diluted
EPS when a company could be called upon to issue shares that would decrease net
profit or increase net loss per share. For a loss making company with
outstanding share options, net loss would only be increased by the exercise of
out-of-the-money options. Since it seems inappropriate to assume that the
option holders would act irrationally, no adjustment has been made to diluted
EPS for out-of-the-money share options.
5. Notes to the unaudited consolidated cash flow statement
Group Group
2007 2006
£ £
Operating loss (5,173,177) (6,015,997)
Adjustments for:
Depreciation of property, plant and 172,060 291,682
equipment
Share of (profit)/loss of associates (123,928) 282,002
Share-based payment expense 468,118 462,661
__________ _________
Operating cash flows before movements (4,656,927) (4,979,652)
in working capital
(Increase) in inventories (106,529) -
Increase in receivables (19,096) (924)
Increase in payables 629,152 574,318
Decrease in provisions (12,751) (54,655)
__________ _________
Cash used in operations (4,166,151) (4,460,913)
___ ___
6. Unaudited consolidated statement of changes in equity
Group Group
2007 2006
£ £
(Loss)/profit for the financial period (5,252,029) (5,637,690)
Gain/(loss) on foreign currency 30,773 (92,375)
translation
New share capital subscribed (net of - 4,932
issue costs)
Share-based payment 468,118 462,661
__________ _________
Net (reduction)/increase in equity (4,753,138) (5,262,472)
Equity at 1st January 2,588,171 7,850,643
__________ _________
Equity at 31st December (2,164,967) 2,588,171
___ ___
Chairman's Statement
For the year ended 31st December 2007
Unaudited consolidated profit and loss account
For the year ended 31st December 2007
Unaudited consolidated balance sheet
As at 31st December 2007
Unaudited consolidated cash flow statement
For the year ended 31st December 2007
Notes to the financial information