Intelligent Ultrasnd - Completion of sale of Clinical AI Business
01/10/2024 10:20
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RNS Number : 4571G Intelligent Ultrasound Group PLC 01 October 2024
1 October 2024
Intelligent Ultrasound Group plc
(the "Group" or the "Company")
Completion of sale of Clinical AI Business
Further to the announcement on 18(th) July 2024, Intelligent Ultrasound Group
plc (AIM: IUG), the ultrasound AI software and simulation company, is pleased
to announce it has completed the sale of its Clinical AI Business (Intelligent
Ultrasound Limited and certain other clinical AI related assets) to GE
HealthCare for an enterprise value of £40.5 million on a cash free/debt free
basis (the "Transaction"). The Transaction excludes the NeedleTrainer products
which remain within the Company along with the Simulation Business.
Transaction highlights:
· Sale of the Clinical AI Business to GE HealthCare for a cash
consideration of £40.5 million
· Disposal excludes the NeedleTrainer product range which is retained
within the remaining Simulation Business. This business generated total
revenues of £10.0 million in the financial year ended 31 December 2023
(including £0.8m relating to the NeedleTrainer product range)
· The consideration represents an implied value of 12.4p per Ordinary
Share on current issued share capital and values the Clinical AI Business at
almost 34 times full year 2023 revenues of that business
The Board has been engaged in a comprehensive review of the Simulation
Business that has involved evaluating the growth potential of the medical
simulation market and the capital requirements of expanding the existing
operations.
In parallel, the Board has also engaged with a broad mix of institutional
shareholders and taken legal and tax advice on structuring a material return
of capital. As part of this process the Company has initiated the legal
process required to create the distributable reserves needed to undertake this
material return of capital. This will be effected through a capital
reduction.
A Circular for the capital reduction has been sent to Shareholders and the
General Meeting to approve the resolutions will be held on 15(th) October at
the Company offices in Cardiff. The capital reduction is expected to be
approved by Court Order on 18(th) November after which further details on the
Company's plans will also be announced.
Trading in H2 2024 is currently broadly in-line with the first half of the
year, with the UK still affected by the capital expenditure constraints on the
NHS and the North America market still relatively slow compared to
expectations. We continue to expect reseller sales in the rest of the world to
increase their year-on-year sales.
Commenting on the Transaction, Riccardo Pigliucci, Chairman of Intelligent
Ultrasound said:
"We are pleased to complete the sale of our Clinical AI Business to GE
HealthCare for £40.5 million and I would like to thank our outgoing CTO,
Nicholas Sleep, who resigned as a director of the Group on completion and
joined GE HealthCare, for his drive and superb contribution to building such a
successful Clinical AI operation. He and his excellent team will all be
missed.
The remaining simulation business has tremendous potential with an excellent
product range particularly in new areas such as needling. Our mission is to
make ultrasound easier to learn and simpler to teach, as we aim to support the
rising demand for sonographers worldwide.
Over the last six weeks we have been engaged in a comprehensive review of the
remaining Simulation Business that has involved evaluating the potential of
expanding both our medical simulation product range, as well as our sales
operations in both reach and scale.
On completion of the capital reduction we look forward to communicating the
details of the Company's plans."
For further information, please contact:
Intelligent Ultrasound Group plc www.intelligentultrasound.com (http://www.intelligentultrasound.com)
Stuart Gall, CEO Tel: +44 (0)29 2075 6534
Helen Jones, CFO
Cavendish Capital Markets Limited
(Nominated advisor and broker)
Giles Balleny / Dan Hodkinson (Corporate Finance) Tel: +44 (0)20 7397 8900
Nigel Birks (ECM)
Dale Bellis (Sales)
Cardew Group - PR Advisors Intelligentultrasound@cardewgroup.com
(mailto:Intelligentultrasound@cardewgroup.com)
Allison Connolly Tel: +44 (0)7587 453955
Emma Pascoe-Watson Tel: +44 (0)7774 620415
Jessica Pilling Tel: +44 (0)7918 584573
About Intelligent Ultrasound Group
Intelligent Ultrasound (AIM: IUG) is one of the world's leading 'classroom to
clinic' ultrasound companies, specialising in real-time hi-fidelity virtual
reality simulation for the ultrasound training market ('classroom') and
artificial intelligence-based clinical image analysis software tools for the
diagnostic medical ultrasound market ('clinic'). Based in Cardiff in
the UK and Atlanta in the US, the Group has two revenue streams:
Simulation
Real-time hi-fidelity ultrasound education and training through simulation.
Our main products are the ScanTrainer obstetrics and gynaecology training
simulator, the HeartWorks echocardiography training simulator,
the BodyWorks Eve Point of Care and Emergency Medicine training simulator
with Covid-19 module and the new BabyWorks Neonate and Paediatric training
simulator. To date over 1,700 simulators have been sold to over 800 medical
institutions around the world.
Clinical AI software
Deep learning-based algorithms to make ultrasound machines smarter and more
accessible using our proprietary ScanNav ultrasound image analysis technology.
Current products on the market utilising this technology are GE
HealthCare's SonoLyst software that is incorporated in their Voluson Expert
and SWIFT ultrasound machines; ScanNav Anatomy PNB that simplifies
ultrasound-guided needling by providing the user with real-time AI-based
anatomy highlighting for a range of medical procedures; and NeedleTrainer
that teaches real-time ultrasound-guided needling and incorporates ScanNav
Anatomy PNB.
www.intelligentultrasound.com (http://www.intelligentultrasound.com/)
NOTE: ScanNav Anatomy PNB is CE approved and cleared for sale in the US by the
FDA but is not available for sale in any other territory requiring government
approval for this type of product.
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