AGM Statement and Business Update

RNS Number : 1324F

Eden Research plc

12 June 2012

 



EDEN RESEARCH PLC

("Eden" or "Company")

AGM Statement and Business Update

Eden Research plc, the agrochemical and encapsulation development company, will hold its Annual General Meeting today at 10.30am at The Farmers' Club, 3 Whitehall Court, London SW1A 2EL.

Following the formal proceedings on the meeting Sir Ben Gill, Chairman of Eden, will make the following statement to shareholders:

"In the recently published 2011 Report and Accounts, I provided shareholders with a detailed update of where the Company is in terms of existing agreements, product registration and intellectual property rights and rather than repeat what was said, I would refer you to that review.

I shall now, however, endeavour to summarise the significant events of the past year and try to provide our shareholders with a picture of the overall situation and the progress that we have made and will continue to make.

Eden has continued to commercialise its encapsulation technologies not only for its primary use in agrochemicals, but, also in other areas such as head-lice, cosmetics, animal health and food flavourings.

The acquisition of the second generation encapsulation technology from University of Massachusetts' Medical School ("UMMS") in October 2011 has increased the potential opportunities available to Eden. This technology provides a greater degree of control over the timing of the release of the encapsulated substance or substances, and this quality is particularly relevant to some of the new product areas that Eden and its partners are developing.

In addition to the strengthening of our patent portfolio through the UMMS acquisition, since July 2011 we have received three notices of patent grants; two for the platform encapsulation technology patent in China and Australia, and one formulation patent from the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization ("ARIPO") application across 15 ARIPO member states. IP is the core of our business, and so these events are significant advances for the Company.

Financially, Eden has been positively transformed and strengthened by the conversion of all the existing long term debt into shares. As a direct result the Balance Sheet is much healthier and afforded us a clean audit report.

This tidying up exercise enabled Eden to finally make the move to the AIM market and, given the uncertainty over the future of the PLUS market, we believe that the move was well timed.

It is disappointing to see that since joining AIM the share price has fallen, as have many other stocks during this period of uncertainty over the future of the Euro and the general economic problems of Europe and the USA. In the coming weeks the Directors will be affording themselves the opportunity now open to them, as AIM members, to have meetings with a much wider number of investment houses, institutional investors and analysts. At the same time we will be continuing with the various opportunities to maximise the value of our IP through the development of existing and new commercial opportunities.

The European review process that has been on-going for a number of years should be concluded in the next 12 months. This will inherently increase the value of the IP that we have, as has already been witnessed through the vast number of enquiries that we are dealing with and data sharing agreements that we have signed.

In addition, during the next year, we expect to see the first product registrations coming through in the agrochemical sector, which will result in sales of product and, therefore, royalties to Eden. Clearly this will be a key milestone in the development of the Company. Also, we should see sales of products which incorporate our technologies in the animal health and biocide markets where the regulatory requirements are much simpler than in the agrochemicals sector.

As you can gauge from this statement, these are exciting times for Eden. We now have a firm foundation upon which to build and expand this business and we thank you all for your continued support."

Eden Research plc	www.edenresearch.com
Sir Ben Gill, Chairman	Tel: [phone]
Alex Abrey, Chief Financial Officer
Zeus Capital Limited	Tel: [phone]
Ross Andrews, Andrew Jones, Brian Stockbridge
Walbrook PR Ltd	Tel: [phone]
Paul McManus (Media Relations)	Mob: [phone] or [e-mail]
Paul Cornelius (Investor Relations)	Mob: [phone] or [e-mail]

Notes:

Eden is an early stage revenue company with intellectual property and expertise in encapsulation, terpenes and environmentally friendly technologies to provide naturally occurring solutions to the global agrochemicals industry, the animal health industry, and consumer products.

Eden's encapsulation technology harnesses the biocidal efficacy of naturally occurring chemicals produced by plants (terpenes) and can also be used with hydrophobic compounds both natural and synthetic. The technology uses yeast cells to deliver a slow release of natural compounds for agricultural and non-agricultural uses. Terpenes are already widely used in the food flavouring, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries.

Historically, terpenes have had limited commercial use in the agrochemical sector due to their volatility, phytotoxicity and poor solubility. Eden's platform encapsulation technology provides a unique, environmentally friendly solution to these problems and enables terpenes to be used as effective, low-risk agrochemicals.

With leading consultants in their respective fields, the Company is developing these technologies through innovative research and a series of commercial production, marketing and distribution partnerships.

The Company has a number of patents and has a pipeline of products at differing stages of development targeting specific areas of the global agrochemicals industry. To date, the Company has invested in the region of £12m in developing and protecting its intellectual property. Revenues earned by the Company have been modest (2010: £172,000; 2011: £91,000) whilst the Company has concentrated on securing patent protection for its intellectual property, identifying suitable industrial partners and entering into licence agreements.

Eden was admitted to trading on AIM on 11 May 2012 and trades under the symbol EDEN.

For more information about Eden, please visit www.edenresearch.com 

 

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