Admission to AIM and First Day of Dealings

RNS Number : 0184O

NetScientific PLC

16 September 2013

 



NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, JAPAN, AUSTRALIA OR THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND OR IN, INTO OR FROM ANY OTHER JURISDICTION WHERE TO DO SO WOULD CONTITUTE A VIOLATION OF THE RELEVANT LAWS OR REGULATIONS OF THAT JURISDICTION

For Immediate Release

16 September 2013

NetScientific plc

("NetScientific" or the "Group")

Admission to AIM and First Day of Dealings

NetScientific, the healthcare medical technology company, is pleased to announce that Admission and trading of its ordinary shares commences today on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange ("Admission") under ticker symbol "NSCI".

Highlights

·      The Group successfully raised £30 million via the placing of new ordinary shares at a price of 160 pence per share (the "Placing").

·      The net proceeds of the Placing will be used to fund working capital to accelerate to the market its two leading portfolio companies, WANDA, Inc. and Vortex BioSciences, Inc., whilst developing its other core spin-out companies and pipeline projects.

·      On Admission, the market capitalisation of the Group at the placing price will be £57.5 million.      

·      The Company has an experienced Board with strong industry and business expertise, led by Sir Richard Sykes as Chairman.

Liberum Capital is the Group's Nominated Adviser and Broker.

Farad Azima, Chief Executive, NetScientific plc commented:

"The successful Admission to AIM represents an important milestone for the Group and we believe that, following our entry onto the market, we can build substantially on our current position.

We are passionate about investing in transformative technologies and believe we have the best people and network to identify, invest and bring to market innovations that will provide good returns for our shareholders and significant benefits to the healthcare industry."

For further information, please contact:

Liberum Capital (Nomad & Broker) Chris Bowman / Christopher Britton / Thomas Bective	Tel: [phone]
Bell Pottinger Daniel de Belder	Tel: [phone]

Company website:www.netscientific.net

About NetScientific

NetScientific is a healthcare medical technology company that identifies, develops and commercialises research and technologies originating from leading universities, teaching hospitals and research institutes globally, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States.  The Group is primarily focused on identifying and developing research and technologies for use in five chronic disease areas within the healthcare diagnostics sector: (i) cardiovascular; (ii) liver; (iii) cancer; (iv) metabolic; and (v) digital health.

The Group's core strategy is to fund and develop translational technologies that offer transformative benefits to peoples' lives and society through improved diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of chronic disease.  Chronic diseases account for more than 70 per cent. of healthcare expenses in each of the United States and the United Kingdom, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the UK Department of Health.  Accordingly, reducing the cost of diagnosing, monitoring and treating chronic disease has become one of the key challenges to the global healthcare sector.  Consequently, the Directors believe the Group's five areas of focus represent highly attractive growth markets with significant unmet medical need for technological development, and in which the Group's management has a significant amount of experience, expertise and strong existing networks.  The Directors also believe that focusing on these areas will provide the Group with a competitive advantage over private equity funds and generalised IP commercialisation companies, enabling it to create value for shareholders.

The Group's current Portfolio contains five standalone subsidiaries, two of which are close to key value inflection points and are currently the primary focus of the Group:

·      WANDA, Inc., which is developing a virtual patient engagement system that aims to improve the effectiveness of remote monitoring of chronic disease patients; and

·      Vortex BioSciences, Inc., which is developing a blood-based cancer test that detects circulating tumour cells.

Within the Group's Portfolio there are also ten pipeline opportunities currently undergoing evaluation and development.

Business Model

The Group aims to identify promising research projects and technologies that have the potential to be translated from research laboratory to clinical and commercial application. 

The Group provides researchers and technologists with funding and funding support, technical guidance and commercial expertise in return for rights over their project IP.  The Group aims to develop each project and IP through the proof of concept stage and onward to full commercialisation.  As part of the process, the most attractive opportunities are formed into portfolio companies, in which the Group typically takes a majority equity interest in return for further funding and guidance.

The Group aims to grow the equity value of its interests in its portfolio companies through various key value inflection points such as clinical trials, regulatory approvals, collaborative funding arrangements, first revenues and follow-on growth.  In turn, these value inflection points create exit or out-licensing opportunities for the Group through trade sales, licensing arrangements with larger market participants or IPOs. 

The Group has active collaborations with a number of US and UK institutions worldwide and has established dialogues with several other institutions that may lead to future pipeline projects. 

Important Notice

This document does not constitute an offer, or an invitation to purchase, securities in the United States or in any other jurisdiction in which such offer or invitation is not authorized or to any person to whom it is unlawful to make such offer or solicitation.

The securities to which this document relates have not been and will not be registered under the US Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration under the Securities Act. There will be no public offering of the securities in the United States.

This document is being distributed to and is only directed at (i) persons who are outside the United Kingdom or (ii) to investment professionals falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the "Order") or (iii) high net worth companies, and other persons to whom it may lawfully be communicated, falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order (all such persons in (i), (ii) and (iii) above together being referred to as "relevant persons"). Any invitation, offer or agreement to subscribe, purchase or otherwise acquire securities will be engaged in only with, relevant persons. Any person who is not a relevant person should not act or rely on this document or any of its contents.

Some of the information in this document may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of NetScientific plc and its subsidiaries. You can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as "expect," "believe," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "will," "could," "may" or "might," or, in each case, the negative of such terms or other similar expressions. We wish to caution you that these statements are only predictions and that actual events or results may differ materially. We do not intend to update these statements to reflect events and circumstances occurring after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Many factors could cause the actual results to differ materially from those contained in our projections or forward-looking statements, including, among others, general economic conditions, our competitive environment, risks associated with our industry, as well as many other risks specifically related to NetScientific plc, its subsidiaries and their operations.

 

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