OptiBiotix Health - Trading Statement
Released
Released
Announcement PDF
RNS Number : 8120P
OptiBiotix Health PLC
13 February 2019
13 February 2019
OptiBiotix Health plc
("OptiBiotix" or the "Company" or "the Group")
Year-end Update
OptiBiotix
Health
plc,
a life sciences business developing compounds to tackle obesity, cardiovascular
disease and diabetes, provides the following unaudited revenue figures and
trading, strategy, and commercial update ahead of the Group's final results for the
year ended 30 November 2018.
Financial Update
The 12 months to 30 November 2018 have seen the continued transition of the
Company from a research and development business to a company showing
strong commercial traction for its award winning products and technologies with
significant deal flow and rapidly growing revenues.
As the year progressed, an increasing number of agreements started to generate
revenues with unaudited income for the year of £541K, of which £461K (85%) was
recognised in the second half of the year (June to 30 November 2018). These
figures represent a 5.8X increase in income from H1 to H2 and a 2.8X increase on
2017 income of £191K.
We anticipate further revenue growth in 2019 as existing deals contribute to full
year revenues, and partners continue to grow sales. More of our existing
agreements will start to generate revenues this year, particularly with larger
partners launching products in international markets in 2019, and new agreements
continue to be signed in 2019. We anticipate further revenue growth will occur
from our online platform (OPTIBIOTIX.Online), SlimBiome® Medical (which
received its CE mark and medical device registration at the end of the accounting
period), and our SweetBiotix®, OptiBiotic® and microbiome modulating platforms.
Revenue growth from these areas will benefit from the appointment of Frederic
Narbel as Managing Director of OptiBiotix's prebiotic division containing its
SweetBiotix, OptiBiotic and microbiome modulating technology platforms. Frederic
was Vice President of Sales for Nutrition Solutions at Agropur, a company with
annualised sales of $6.4 billion (2017), and will join us from 1 March 2019.
At 30 November 2018, the Company had £1.33m cash in the bank. Once R&D tax
credits, and recoverable VAT are added back, the balance was c. £1.67m. On 14
December 2018, post accounting period, Probiotix Health Ltd, a wholly owned
subsidiary of OptiBiotix Health, announced it had raised £1.025 million of capital
through the issue of convertible loan notes in preparation for a potential initial
public offering. Of this £198K was received before 30 th November with the
remaining received post accounting period. With this funding and growing
revenues, the cash position remains strong and sufficient to cover the delivery of
existing commercial plans.
Strategy
OptiBiotix's strategy is to develop multiple opportunities within the microbiome
space across all its platforms by creating food ingredients, supplements and
pharmaceutical products with partners. This approach allows OptiBiotix to present
product solutions to consumer health, pharmaceutical and retail companies
providing multiple revenue streams from ingredient sales, white label and own
branded products across multiple channels. The large number of agreements
signed in 2018 across multiple application areas represents early execution of this
strategy. These agreements are starting to generate recurring revenue streams and
will form the backbone of future sales growth. This partnering strategy is designed
to maximize the income potential of each product, whilst limiting the risk related to
any individual deal. This strategy allows OptiBiotix to operate on a "asset-light"
infrastructure with manufacturing, regulatory approvals, and sales & marketing
infrastructure funded by OptiBiotix's partners such that license and royalty fees are
largely cost free and impact the bottom line. We anticipate further execution of
this strategy in 2019 with further revenues against a continued low-cost base
creating profitable divisions across all areas of the Company.
Commercial
OptiBiotix signed 18 commercial agreements in the year to 30 November 2018,
eight more than the 10 deals concluded in 2017. These include 10 for the Probiotic
division, six for SlimBiome®, and two for SweetBiotix. Three of these agreements
extend LPLDL® into drug biotherapeutics. In these deals, the partner provides all
funding for drug registration and approvals in return for exclusivity. OptiBiotix
receives milestone and/or royalty payments based on product development and
future product sales. This is a low cost, low risk approach to enter the
pharmaceutical space which, if successful, has the potential to create significant
value uplift for OptiBiotix in the years ahead. Similarly, for SlimBiome®, its
registration as a medical device with CE mark extends the application of
SlimBiome® from food products into high value medical products and opens up
access to consumer healthcare and pharmaceutical markets across Europe.
The online platform launched in autumn 2018 creates another channel to market
and a shop window for our technologies and products. The addition of CholBiome,
and CholBiome 3X, and muesli pots to the store has helped to increase sales and
we anticipate an increasing contribution from online sales in 2019.
The focus for 2019 is on further extending our reach into new application areas
and new territories, and translating industry interest into deal flow and further
revenue growth. In addition to the use of SlimBiome® as a medical device and the
development of LPLDL® as a pharmaceutical, we will extend the application of
LPLDL® from its use as a supplement into use as a food and dairy ingredient. This is
in line with our strategy of building revenues and market presence of our patented
and trademarked products (LPLDL®, SlimBiome®) as the 'Intel' inside a wide range
of food, beverage, supplement, and medical products around the world.
Notice of results
The Company intends to report its final results for the year ended 30 November
2018 by 30 April 2019.
Stephen O'Hara, CEO of OptiBiotix, commented: "This year has seen strong
revenue growth in the second half of 2018 as a number of agreements started to
generate early revenues. We anticipate further revenue growth in 2019 as these deals
contribute to full year revenues and partners continue to grow sales. Existing deals will
start to generate further revenues, and new agreements are regularly being signed. We
also anticipate growing contributions from our online sales divisions, sales of
SlimBiome® Medical, and our SweetBiotix®, OptiBiotic®, and microbiome modulating
platforms. The last 12 months has seen OptiBiotix transition from a research and
development company to a commercial business with significant deal flow and rapidly
growing revenues. This is all part of a strategy designed to develop multiple
opportunities accessing healthcare markets around the world, which if successful, has
the potential to generate substantive revenues and profitability. As these revenues grow
and we continue to build trading histories with an increasing number of partners, we
will be in a position to provide reliable forecasts to the market."
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7
of EU Regulation 596/2014.
For further information, please contact:
OptiBiotix Health plc
Stephen O'Hara, Chief Executive
www.optibiotix.com
Contact via Walbrook below
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (NOMAD)
Liam Murray / Jo Turner
Tel: 020 7213 0880
finnCap (Broker)
Geoff Nash / Kate Bannatyne (Corporate Finance)
Camille Gochez (Corporate Broking)
Tel: 020 7220 0500
Walbrook PR Ltd
Anna Dunphy
Tel: 020 7933 8780 or
optibiotix@walbrookpr.com
Mob: 07876 741 001
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END
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