Fundraising to raise ?4 million

RNS Number : 4925F

Omega Diagnostics Group PLC

24 May 2013

 



Omega Diagnostics Group plc

("Omega" or the "Company")

Fundraising to raise £4 million

Omega (AIM: ODX), the medical diagnostics company focused on allergy, food intolerance and infectious disease, announces that it has conditionally raised £4 million before expenses, by the placing (the "Placing") for cash of 23,500,000 new ordinary shares of £0.04 each ("Ordinary Shares") (the "Placing Shares") and subscription (the "Subscription" and, together with the Placing, the "Fundraising") of 29,412 new Ordinary Shares  (the "Subscription Shares" and, together with the Placing Shares, the "New Ordinary Shares") at 17 pence per New Ordinary Share (the "Issue Price").

Highlights

·     Oversubscribed Fundraising to raise £4 million in cash, by finnCap, as agent for the Company

·     Continued development of allergy implementation strategy

·     Scale-up in production and roll-out of Visitect CD4 test and feasibility development of a smartphone reader

·     Circular sent to shareholders convening a General Meeting for Monday, 10 June 2013

Use of Proceeds

As part of the Company's expansion plans, it intends to use the net proceeds of the Fundraising to continue the implementation of its allergy instrumentation strategy and to fund a final instalment due under the Patent Licence Agreement with IDS. A large proportion of the net proceeds will also be used to fund the initial Visitect CD4 inventory build requirement and to roll out the test into field trials. The remainder of the net proceeds of the Fundraising will be used by the Company to explore opportunities that may exist in the HIV viral load area, settle outstanding loans when falling due and for general overheads and working capital.

Further details are provided in the Circular to shareholders, extracts of which are provided below, and is available on the Company website: www.omegadiagnostics.com

Andrew Shepherd, CEO of Omega, said:

"We are delighted to have received the support of investors for the next phase in Omega's development through this oversubscribed fundraising. We believe that CD4 represents a unique product that satisfies an urgent and unmet clinical need and has the potential to transform the way HIV is treated in developing countries. We are also confident that our work with IDS to develop allergy tests on the IDS-iSYS platform will generate value for shareholders."

Contacts:

Omega Diagnostics Group PLC	Tel: [phone]
Andrew Shepherd, Chief Executive	www.omegadiagnostics.com
Kieron Harbinson, Group Finance Director
Jag Grewal, Group Sales and Marketing Director
finnCap Ltd	Tel: [phone]
Geoff Nash/Christopher Raggett (Corporate Finance)
Stephen Norcross/Mia Gardner (Corporate Broking)
Walbrook PR Limited	Tel: [phone] or [e-mail]
Paul McManus	Mob: [phone]
Lianne Cawthorne	Mob: [phone]

Background to and reasons for the Fundraising

Allergy Development Programme

Omega develops, manufactures and sells allergy tests for over 600 allergens, with more than 20 years of knowledge and understanding in the development and production of in-vitro allergy tests. In March 2011 Omega entered into an exclusive Patent Licence Agreement with a subsidiary of Immunodiagnostic Systems Group plc ("IDS") enabling Omega to develop a range of allergy immunoassays on IDS' automated system (IDS-iSYS). When combined with Omega's experience in assay development, this forms a strong platform for allergy testing and a greater opportunity for revenue generation in the global allergy market, currently estimated at $0.5bn per year, with a compound annual growth rate of 8%.

Visitect® CD4 ("Visitect CD4")

The Company is also pursuing an exciting new opportunity represented by its new Point-of-Care ("PoC") Visitect CD4 test.  PoC testing for CD4 could transform the way that care and treatment are provided to HIV-positive patients, particularly in developing countries.

Visitect CD4 is a simple PoC device for the measurement of CD4 cell counts in HIV patients to ascertain when antiretroviral therapy should be initiated, and to monitor the effectiveness of the prescribed drugs.

CD4 counts are typically performed using flow cytometry which physically counts every individual cell. This process usually requires expensive equipment, laboratory facilities and trained staff, something that many regions of the world do not currently have, cannot afford and logistically cannot put in place.

Omega has an exclusive global licence from the Burnet Institute in Melbourne, Australia to a unique, simple, lateral flow PoC device which provides a binary read out confirming that the CD4 count is above or below 350 cells/µL. A result is available within 40 minutes and treatment can be administered shortly thereafter. This has the opportunity to reduce greatly the number of patients in remote locations lost to care as a result of the length of time between testing and treatment. The device does not need an instrument to provide a reading but a smart phone reader, currently in early feasibility studies is designed to remove any operator subjectivity in interpreting the test result as well as to provide logistical benefits. The directors of the Company (the "Directors") believe that this could further differentiate Omega's product offering from the competition. The process to transfer the technology from the Burnet Institute to Omega is estimated to complete during the third quarter of the current calendar year. 

There are an estimated 33 million HIV-infected individuals worldwide.  Of these, an estimated 17.1 million people in developing countries currently cannot access treatment due to the non-availability of a disposable PoC CD4 test.  The Directors believe the Visitect CD4 test represents a major opportunity where it is recommended that each patient be tested every six months and where CD4 testing is expected to grow substantially over the next eight years as countries scale up their treatment programmes.

Directors' Shareholdings

Certain of the Directors and their connected persons will be participating in the Fundraising. The details of the Directors' participation and the holdings in Ordinary Shares of the Directors and their connected persons following admission of the New Ordinary Shares to trading on AIM ("Admission") are set out in the table below.

Director	Number of Ordinary Shares currently held	Number of New Ordinary Shares	Number of Ordinary Shares following Admission	Percentage of Ordinary Shares in issue following Admission
David Evans	2,870,134	-	2,870,134	2.64
Andrew Shepherd	2,618,030	41,176	2,659,206	2.45
Jag Grewal	-	29,412	29,412	0.03
Kieron Harbinson	294,150	29,412	353,562	0.30
Michael Gurner	271,671	147,059	418,730	0.39
William Rhodes	-	-	-	-

Related Party Transaction

Participation in the Placing by Legal & General Investment Management is considered to be a related party transaction pursuant to the AIM Rules because Legal & General Investment Management is a substantial shareholder (as defined in the AIM Rules). The Directors, having consulted with the Company's nominated adviser, finnCap, consider that the subscription for Placing Shares by Legal & General Investment Management is fair and reasonable insofar as the Shareholders are concerned.

General Meeting

The Fundraising is conditional upon, inter alia, shareholder approval to be sought at a General Meeting of the Company to be held on 10 June 2013 and Admission. A circular has been sent to shareholders of the Company, incorporating a notice of General Meeting.

Application will be made for Admission and, subject to shareholder approval, it is expected that Admission will occur and that dealings will commence on AIM on Tuesday 11 June 2013. The New Ordinary Shares will rank pari passu with the existing Ordinary Shares currently traded on AIM.  Following Admission, there will be 108,745,669 Ordinary Shares in issue.

Fundraising Statistics

Number of Existing Shares	85,216,257
Number of Placing Shares being placed on behalf of the Company	23,500,000
Number of Subscription Shares	29,412
Number of New Ordinary Shares	23,529,412
Number of Ordinary Shares in issue following Admission	108,745,669
Issue Price	17p
Estimated net proceeds of the Fundraising receivable by the Company	£3.76 million
Number of New Ordinary Shares as a percentage of the Enlarged Issued Share Capital	21.64 per cent.
Market capitalisation of the Company at Admission at the Issue Price	£18.49 million

 

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