Admission to Trading and First Day of Dealings

RNS Number : 6760H

HeiQ PLC

07 December 2020

 

7 December 2020

HeiQ Plc ("the Company")

(formerly Auctus Growth Plc)  

Admission to Trading and First Day of Dealings

Following the successful reverse takeover by the Company of HeiQ Materials AG ("HeiQ"), an established global brand in materials and textile innovation which operates in high-growth markets, the Company announces admission of the enlarged group to the standard segment of the Official List and initiation of trading on the London Stock Exchange's Main Market at 8.00 a.m. today under the ticker 'HEIQ' ("Admission"). The ISIN of the Ordinary Shares is GB00BN2CJ299 and the SEDOL Code is BN2CJ29.

The admission follows an oversubscribed placing and subscription, raising £60 million (before expenses) from institutional and other investors. A detailed background to the Company and its capital formation is set out in the prospectus dated 12 November 2020, which can be found on the Company's website, www.heiq.com . As a result of the completion of the reverse takeover, the Company has changed its name to HeiQ plc.

HeiQ: a global, profitable, and fast-growing pioneer in the $24 billion textile chemicals market, directly serving the $10 billion antimicrobial textile market with its recent Swiss Technology Award-winning HeiQ Viroblock technology.

Highlights:

· HeiQ is an environmentally conscious materials and textile innovation company which pioneers materials for life, creating some of the most effective, durable and high-performance textile and materials technologies in the market today, which cool, warm, dry, repel, purify, and destroy viruses.

· HeiQ has developed over 200 technologies in partnership with over 300 major brands, including Burberry, GAP, New Balance, Patagonia, Speedo, The North Face and Zara.

· Founded in 2005, HeiQ has grown into a high growth, cash generative company which employs more than 100 people around the world.

· A high intellectual capital company, HeiQ is led by an experienced management team. HeiQ's rapid deep innovation capabilities enable new solutions for its partners. HeiQ quickly delivers scaled up manufacturing from its sites across the world and co-promotes partners end products to end consumers - aiming for lab to consumer in a matter of months.

· HeiQ's latest innovation - HeiQ Viroblock - an award-winning antimicrobial technology which helps in the fight against enveloped viruses, including SARS-CoV-2 (the virus causing COVID-19), is already being used by more than 150 major brands such as Burberry.

· In licensing the HeiQ Viroblock technology to third parties, HeiQ has achieved a wide distribution of branded products and strongly increased consumer awareness of the HeiQ brand.

· The Company's aim is to deliver growth for the Company's shareholders by driving increased sales of HeiQ's core products and by entering additional lucrative markets through disruptive innovations. The Company's focus in increasing sales will be:

o  Increasing market penetration of core innovations , including HeiQ Fresh AIR (developed for a leading Swedish home furnishing retailer); HeiQ Smart Temp (used by Japan's biggest casual wear retailer and American clothing brand, Hanesbrands Inc.) and HeiQ Clean Tech (given the Swiss Environmental Award in 2019).

o  Building on the significant momentum achieved by HeiQ Viroblock: developing HeiQ's licensing and royalty business, which will see the brand name HeiQ Viroblock licensed together with the technology to third parties in return for royalty payments.

o  Developing new disruptive innovations: numerous projects in the R&D pipeline, including HeiQ GrapheneX for industrial filtration. The industrial filtration market was over $29 billion in 2020 - CAGR of 6.9% from the period of 2020 to 2025.

· On Admission, the Company will have 125,891,904 ordinary shares in issue and a market capitalisation of £141 million at the placing price of 112p.

HeiQ Co-Founder & CEO Carlo Centonze said, "Today's listing is a major milestone for HeiQ, and we are delighted to welcome our new investors aboard the ship. We have spent the past 15 years building HeiQ to become one of the leading textile materials innovators in the world, and the cash generative, high margin profile of our business demonstrates the success we have experienced.

"The fundraise will enable HeiQ to build on the significant momentum achieved so far in 2020. There are many opportunities to capture more market share through increased sales of our core products to major brands. These have grown 17% in the first half of the year and, in parallel, we have entered lucrative new markets with additional high margin innovations.

"The antimicrobial market, which has grown into a mainstream request, also presents a compelling growth opportunity going forward. The launch of HeiQ Viroblock more than doubled HeiQ's revenue in the first half of 2020. We look forward to innovating the antimicrobial field and regularly updating the market regarding new partnerships and contracts in the future.

"We are in a robust financial position with a healthy balance sheet and revenue. We have been cash-generative for many years. The business has substantial IP, technology and regulatory permits which create strong barriers to entry. Management holds almost a quarter of the shares and are fully aligned with our original shareholders. Our brand equity has experienced strong growth which will likely lead to further requests by consumers. In summary, we believe the months and years ahead look bright for the enlarged group."

HeiQ Plc Carlo Centonze (CEO)	[phone]
Arlington Group Asset Management Limited (Financial Advisor and Joint Broker) Charles Cannon Brookes	[phone]
Cenkos Securities plc (Joint Broker) Stephen Keys / Callum Davidson / Michael Johnson	[phone]
Newgate Communications (Media Enquiries) Elisabeth Cowell / Robin Tozer / Megan Kovach	[phone] [e-mail]

About HeiQ

HeiQ is a pioneer and at the forefront of global technology in the $10 billion antimicrobial fabrics and $24 billion textile chemicals market. With the focus on materials and textile innovation, HeiQ has created some of the most effective, durable and high-performance technologies and textile effects in the market today, which cool, warm, dry, repel, purify, and destroy viruses. Since 2005, HeiQ has developed over 200 technologies in partnership with 300 major brands.

HeiQ is a high intellectual capital company which has successfully built up a reputation in textile technologies, having won multiple awards and innovating with leading eco-conscious brands such as Patagonia.

Led by an experienced management team, HeiQ rapidly researches new solutions for partners, quickly delivers scaled up manufacturing from its sites across the world and helps partners market the product to end consumers - aiming for lab to consumer in months.

HeiQ aims to deliver growth for its shareholders through a combination of increased sales of its core products and by entering additional lucrative markets through disruptive innovations.

 

Notes to Editors - Board Appointments

Carlo Centonze - Co-founder & CEO of HeiQ; Executive Director

Carlo is a co-founder and serves as Chief Executive Officer ("CEO") of the HeiQ Group. Carlo studied Environmental Sciences and Forest Engineering (MSc) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich. He earned his Executive MBA at the University of St.Gallen (HSG). After his service as an army pilot, he started his professional career as co-founder of the ETH spin-off, myclimate, a non-profit organisation and prominent provider of carbon offsetting measures. Since 2004, Carlo has served HeiQ as co-founder and CEO, developing the firm from a two-employee company to a 90 employee company. He also serves as Chairman of ECSA Group, a 107-year-old Swiss chemical and energy distributor with a consolidated turnover of over CHF 300 million for 2018 and is a member of the executive board of science industries, the Swiss association of the pharmaceutical, biotech and chemical industry.

Xaver Hangartner - CFO of HeiQ; Executive Director

Xaver started his career in finance in 2005 after obtaining a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the University of St.Gallen (HSG). At the beginning of his professional career, he worked with EY Switzerland as an auditor for industrial clients and graduated as a Swiss Certified Public Accountant in 2009. He later worked in various finance positions and led the global finance and accounting team of a listed Korean speciality chemical producer before joining HeiQ in 2018 as Head of Controlling. He was appointed Group Chief Financial Officer in October 2019.

Esther Dale-Kolb - Non-Executive Director and Chairwoman

Esther was Chief Executive Officer of Dr. W. Kolb Holding AG ("Kolb"), a Swiss speciality chemicals

company. From 1991 until 2007 Esther was CEO of the Kolb Group, with over 200 employees, producing in Holland and Switzerland as an internationally operating speciality chemicals company. Esther managed the change from a pioneer driven family company to a process orientated modern business with cooperative management style, contributing to substantial growth in production capacity, revenue and EBIT. She then successfully concluded the trade sale of the Kolb Group to Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad, KLK Malaysia and remained on the board for a further 18 months. Before leading Kolb, Esther worked as a product manager in paper chemicals and started her career as a laboratory technician at Dow Chemical. She completed her apprenticeship at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich, and received her Bachelor of Science degree at King's College London. Esther was active as a member of the board of the Swisscross Foundation, a Swiss charitable foundation. Esther is the acting Chairwoman of HeiQ.

Benjamin Bergo - Non-Executive Director

Ben is a non-executive director of HeiQ, having joined the board on 30 June 2014. Ben brings a wealth of experience in high growth technology operations and venture capital. He currently serves as President and CEO of Visus Therapeutics, Inc., an ophthalmic drug development company. He also serves as a nonexecutive director at Lumos Diagnostics Holdings Pty Ltd, a leading full-service provider of point of care diagnostic solutions. Ben previously served as a non-executive director of Planet Innovation Holdings Limited, a healthtech innovation and commercialisation company, and led investments into life sciences transactions at a seed stage venture fund between 2007 and 2011. Prior to this, Ben held management roles at Vision BioSystems, until the sale of Vision Systems Limited to Danaher Corporation in 2006.

Karen Brade - Non-Executive Director

Karen has over 25 years' experience in international finance. Karen is a specialist in project finance, private equity investing and portfolio management. She has extensive experience in many of the world's emerging markets. She began her career with Citibank, London before moving in 1994 to Commonwealth Development Corporation ("CDC"). From 1996 to 1999 she was at CDC's New Delhi office where she held a number of non-executive board positions on CDC portfolio companies. From 2003 to 2004 she led fundraising and investor relations for CDC & Actis in South Asia. Karen has conducted due diligence and structured investments in Asia, West Africa, the Caribbean and Central America. She has been involved in transactions ranging from chemical plants in Thailand to power projects in Pakistan. She has built relationships and sourced co-investment opportunities with private equity investors in similar emerging markets. In 1992, Karen spent a year in former Yugoslavia in an emergency aid role with UNICEF and the World Health Organisation. Karen is a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin. Currently, Karen holds the position of Chairman for Aberdeen Japan Investment Trust Plc and Chairman at Keystone Investment Trust Plc. She is also on the board of and Chairman of the audit committee for Augmentum Fintech PLC. In addition, she is on the board of Moor Park Charitable Trust Ltd and is an external member of the Albion Capital investment committee.

 

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