REG - Proteome Sciences - Loan Facility, Trading Update & Directorate Change

Proteome SciencesAnnouncement

23/12/2024 07:15

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RNS Number : 0927R  Proteome Sciences PLC  23 December 2024

23 December 2024

 

 The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company
to constitute inside information as stipulated under the UK Market Abuse
Regulation

 

Proteome Sciences plc

("Proteome Sciences" or the "Company")

 

Loan Agreement, Trading Update and Directorate Changes

 

The Board of Proteome Sciences is pleased to provide a trading update and
announce that it has entered into new loan agreements with Vulpes Investment
Management Private Limited ("Vulpes") and Christopher Pearce (together the
"Lenders"), for a total of £1 million (the "Loan Facility"), as well as an
update on Board changes.

 

As announced in the Interim Results on 13 September 2024, the Company was
adversely impacted by the challenging background to the biotech market.
Interest in the Company's proteomics activities remained healthy throughout
this period with a growing order book, but the translation into revenues was
delayed until the second half of the year.

 

In the Interim Results, the Company detailed a strong increase in orders for
both the TMT and its services business and is pleased to confirm that momentum
has continued through the second half. In particular, the strong growth in the
Company's services business orders has carried over into the 2025 and 2026
pipeline and the Board expects this to be reflected in the 2025 results.

 

The TMTpro 35plex tags which launched in June resulted in a significant
increase in orders and should stimulate new publications that demonstrate the
outstanding performance of the tags and their utility, which should further
improve uptake and usage. Good progress is being made with the Company's new
multiplexed DIA tags, with discussions underway with a shortlisted group of
prospective licensees expected to conclude in H1 2025. The Company is also
processing its first commercial orders in single cell proteomics (SCP) and the
outcomes are awaited with great interest.

 

The substantial increase in services orders required the Company to acquire
two additional top-end mass spectrometers that came on stream during the year
to provide additional capacity but these are still not enough to satisfy the
current demand in the pipeline that has extended out to 2026 from additional
customer contracts that have been secured. Proteome Sciences needs to increase
the instrument capacity further.

 

Proteome Sciences will use the Loan Facility to facilitate the acquisition of
a new Exploris mass spectrometer to further expand its capacity for future
orders and to provide additional working capital at this inflection point in
the Company's services business.

 

The full year outcome in 2024 is expected to show good recovery from the
impact of the global downturn in biotech over the previous year and the first
half of this year. Based on the considerable increase in customer orders and
services in the second half of the year, we are optimistic that our proteomics
business can deliver substantial increases in revenue and returns in the
future.

 

Loan Facility details

 

The Loan Facility is available for draw down as a revolving credit facility
for two years. Each Lender has agreed to loan the Company £500,000, for a
total of £1 million. The loan from Vulpes is unsecured and has an interest
rate of 10.0% per annum, whilst the loan from Christopher Pearce is secured
against certain assets and IP of the Company and carries annual interest at a
rate of 2.5% above the Barclays Bank plc interest rate. The loan and interest
will be repayable upon the second anniversary of the Loan Facility. The
Company will be entitled to repay the whole or any part of the Loan in
multiples of £100,000 at any time subject to five working days' notice.

 

As a result of the new Loan Facility, the Company has loans with each of the
Lenders totalling £12.6m (including accrued interest) with Christopher Pearce
and £0.5m with Vulpes.

 

Related party transactions

 

As each of the Lenders hold more than 10 per cent. of the ordinary shares,
Christopher Pearce is a director of the Company and Vulpes is managed by
Martin Diggle who is a director of the Company, entering into the Loan
Facility is deemed to be a related party transaction pursuant to rule 13 of
the AIM Rules for Companies. The independent directors consider, having
consulted with the Company's nominated adviser, Allenby Capital, that the
terms of the Loan Facility are fair and reasonable insofar as shareholders are
concerned.

 

Directorate changes

 

With the imminent departure of Dr Mariola Soehngen at the end of January 2025,
the Chairman, Christopher Pearce, will take the role of Executive Chairman
until the Company appoints an appropriate successor to become CEO.

 

In addition, the Company announce that Abdel Omari the Chief Finance Officer,
will be resigning as a director on 31 January 2025 to pursue other
opportunities, but will continue to be involved with the Company acting
thereafter as part time financial consultant and adviser to the Board.

 

 

 Proteome Sciences plc
 Dr. Mariola Soehngen, Chief Executive Officer                           Tel: +44 (0)20 7043 2116

 Dr. Ian Pike, Chief Scientific Officer
 Richard Dennis, Chief Commercial Officer

 Abdelghani Omari, Chief Financial Officer

 Allenby Capital Limited (Nominated Adviser & Broker)
 John Depasquale / Lauren Wright (Corporate Finance)                     Tel: +44 (0) 20 3328 5656

 Tony Quirke / Stefano Aquilino (Equity Sales & Corporate Broking)

 

 

About Proteome Sciences plc. (www.proteomics.com (http://www.proteomics.com/)
)

 

Proteome Sciences plc is a specialist provider of contract proteomics services
to enable drug discovery, development and biomarker identification, and
employs proprietary workflows for the optimum analysis of tissues, cells and
body fluids. SysQuant® and TMT®MS2 are unbiased methods for identifying and
contextualising new targets and defining mechanisms of biological activity,
while analysis using Super-Depletion and TMTcalibrator™ provides access to
over 8,500 circulating plasma proteins for the discovery of disease-related
biomarkers. Targeted assay development using mass spectrometry delivers high
sensitivity, interference-free biomarker analyses in situations where standard
ELISA assays are not available.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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