Placing to raise £0.75 million

RNS Number : 1605F

Tekcapital plc

11 July 2019

 

Tekcapital plc

("Tekcapital" or the "Company")

Placing to raise £0.75 million

Tekcapital plc, (AIM: TEK) the UK intellectual property investment group focused on creating marketplace value from university technology, announces today a proposed placing of 9,375,000 new ordinary shares of 0.4 pence each in the Company (the "New Ordinary Shares"), at 8 pence per share (the "Placing Price"), to raise  £0.75 million ($0.94 million) to fund investment in key activities and to further develop and progress with the commercialisation of its portfolio of IP technologies and for working capital purposes (the "Placing").   

Key Highlights:

·    Placing of 9,375,000 New Ordinary Shares at 8 pence each to raise £0.75 million ($0.94 million) before expenses

·  Proceeds are expected to be used to further develop the commercialisation of the Company's portfolio of IP technologies, strengthen its balance sheet and help with its working capital requirements.

·    Support from both new and existing investors

Background to the Placing and use of proceeds

Tekcapital is a unique intellectual property ("IP") investment and services company, specialising in the acquisition and commercialisation of technologies developed throughout a global university network of over 4,500 institutions in 160 different countries. This allows visibility of a large amount of the world's university developed IP available for acquisition, whereby through leveraging its extensive network of scientific advisors, who are able to assist in selecting and evaluating IP opportunities, Tekcapital is able to mitigate against adverse selection. In addition to the Company's University IP investment activities, the Company provides specialist services for organisations that want to acquire University IP for licensing, or to hire tech transfer expertise, in addition to providing bespoke training programs for a variety of public and private sector clients. Having demonstrated growth in Latin America, the Company believes further expansion opportunities exist in this market.

A significant amount of the Placing will be utilised to expand Tekcapital's commercialisation of their investment portfolio of businesses. The Company believes that there is considerable value to be realised from the portfolio of patent rights,and is continuing to further commercialise these operations. The Company's portfolio of investments includes:

·    Belluscura plc, of which Tekcapital now owns approximately 21.7%, recently received commitments for £725,000 of additional funding and is on track to receive FDA clearance later this year followed by commercial launch in H1 2020.   Belluscura has continued to report progress within its advanced portable oxygen concentrator ("POC") program. Belluscara is a medical device company that acquires non-core assets from leading medical device companies and research institutions with a capable and highly experienced management.  Globally, the medical portable  oxygen market is expected to grow from $1.4bn in 2018 to $2.4bn by 2024.

·    Lucyd ltd, which is wholly owned by Tekcapital, sells innovative smart-glasses, regular spectacles and also owns 13 design patent applications and one utility patent application for augmented sound glasses.  Earlier this year Lucyd launched Loud 2.0, its new line of prescription-ready Bluetooth music glasses. Lucyd is positioned at the intersection of the online eyewear and digital assistant markets. Online eyewear sales in the U.K. are projected to reach $824m in 2019. The U.S. online eyewear market is projected to reach US$3.5b in 2019 and expected to grow annually by 1.3%.

·    Salarius ltd, of which Tekcapital owns 97.5%, holds a patented process for producing Nano-particle sized salt crystals ("MicroSalt®"), which can reduce sodium consumption by up to 50.0%. Earlier this year Salarius launched the production of MicroSalt® and secured its first commercial order, a follow-on order and a third order for its proprietary, all natural, non-GMO, low-sodium salt. According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular disease takes the lives of 17.9 million people per year and is responsible for 31% of global deaths and as such the low sodium ingredient market is estimated to reach US$1.76 billion by 2025.

·    Guident, ltd, which is wholly owned by Tekcapital, was established to commercialise new technology to enhance the utility, safety and enjoyment of autonomous vehicles ("AVs") and drones. Using its proprietary IP, Guident develops software Apps that allow users of AV's and drones to dispatch their vehicles to join ridesharing fleets, find available parking spots and charging stations and report and respond to accidents as well as park themselves and make deliveries. Recently, Guident announced that it has acquired the exclusive license to two additional intellectual properties to improve the safety of autonomous vehicles and delivery drones. The autonomous vehicle market is expected to reach US $65.3 billion by 2027.

The Company will use the additional proceeds of the Placing for working capital purposes, to invest in key activities, and to further develop and progress with the commercialisation of its portfolio of IP technologies.

Details of the Placing

finnCap Ltd is acting as the Company's nominated adviser and joint broker with Novum Securities Limited in connection with the Placing.

The Placing is subject to certain Terms and Conditions. The Placing is not underwritten.

The Placing comprises 9,375,000 New Ordinary Shares. The New Ordinary Shares have been placed at the Placing Price with new investors. The Placing as a whole will raise proceeds of £0.75 million ($0.94 million), before expenses, for the Company. The New Ordinary Shares will represent approximately 14.7 per cent. of the enlarged issued share capital.

The New Ordinary Shares will be in registered form and capable of being held in certificated form or uncertificated form in CREST.  The Placing is conditional upon the Placing Agreement becoming unconditional and Admission by no later than 8.00 a.m. on 1 August 2019 (or such time and date as the Company, finnCap and Novum may agree, being not later than 15 August 2019).

Application for Admission

Application has been made for the New Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM. Admission is expected to become effective on or around 1 August  2019 ("Admission").  All Ordinary Shares have equal voting rights and none of the Ordinary Shares are held in treasury. The total number of voting rights in the Company immediately following Admission will therefore be 63,728,042.

Clifford M. Gross Ph.D., Executive Chairman of Tekcapital plc commented:

"I am pleased to announce the successful conclusion of this fundraise with support from both new and existing shareholders. The proceeds from the Placing will enable Tekcapital to continue to commercialise its portfolio companies and deliver further value to shareholders."

For further information please contact:

Tekcapital plc Clifford M Gross, Ph.D		Via Yellow Jersey PR
finnCap Ltd (Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker)		[phone]
Geoff Nash (Corporate Finance)
Max Bullen-Smith (Corporate Finance)
Camille Gochez (ECM)
Novum Securities (Joint Broker) Colin Rowbury	[phone]
Yellow Jersey Limited	[phone]
Tim Thompson/ Annabel Atkins			[e-mail]

Tekcapital plc - The World's Largest University Network for Open Innovation

Tekcapital creates value from investing in new, university-developed intellectual properties and provides a range of IP investment services to make it easy for organisations to commercialise university-developed technology. Tekcapital is quoted on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange (AIM: symbol TEK) and is headquartered in Oxford, in the UK. For more information, please visit www.tekcapital.com

LEI: 213800GOJTOV19FIFZ85

This Announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014 ("MAR"). In addition, market soundings (as defined in MAR) were taken in respect of the Placing with the result that certain persons became aware of inside information (as defined in MAR), as permitted by MAR. This inside information is set out in this Announcement. Therefore, those persons that received inside information in a market sounding are no longer in possession of such inside information relating to the Company and its securities.

 

END

 

 

IOEFBLLFKDFZBBQ