Issue of Equity and Grant of Share Options

RNS Number : 9859I

Evocutis PLC

01 August 2012

 



Press Release

1 August 2012

Evocutis plc

("Evocutis" or "the Company")

Issue of Equity and Grant of Share Options

Evocutis plc (AIM: EVO), the company focused on advanced laboratory and clinical evaluations

of skincare products for the health and cosmetic markets, announces that it has today issued a total of 595,238 new ordinary shares of 1 pence each in the Company ("New Ordinary Shares") at a price of 1.12 pence per share.

Dr Gwyn Humphreys, Interim Chief Executive Officer, has agreed to take New Ordinary Shares in lieu of a cash salary payment of £6,667, as part remuneration for his services to the Company for the period from 1 June 2012 to 31 July 2012.  This issue of New Ordinary Shares is part of an agreement with Dr Humphreys to receive New Ordinary Shares in respect of £40,000 per annum as part of his remuneration package. In future New Ordinary Shares will be issued to Dr Humphreys in respect of this agreement on a quarterly basis in arrears.

Accordingly, application has been made for these New Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM.  The shares rank pari passu with the existing issued shares of the Company and dealings are expected to commence on 7 August 2012.  Following the issue of these new shares, the Company has a total of 173,774,928 ordinary shares of 1 pence each in issue.

Following this issue, Dr Humphreys has beneficial interests in 2,439,648 ordinary shares of 1 pence each.

Furthermore, on 1 August 2012 (the "Grant Date"), various employees (excluding directors) were awarded options over ordinary shares of 1 pence each (the "Options") at an exercise price of 1.12 pence per share exercisable as to the following amounts after the following periods of time after the Grant Date:

Period after the Grant Date                 Cumulative Percentage of Options Exercisable

12 months                                           33.33%

24 months                                           66.67%

36 months                                           100.00%

The Options were awarded as part of the Company's Enterprise Management Incentive Scheme as detailed in the Company's Admission Document which is available on the Company's website.

The number of Options granted today to employees is 6,295,200.  The total number of granted options over New Ordinary Shares is 13,468,030 representing 7.75 per cent. of the issued share capital as enlarged by the issue of shares today. 

There are no further details required under Schedule Five of the AIM Rules for Companies.

- Ends -

For further information, please contact:

Evocutis plc
Tom Bannatyne, Chairman	[phone]
Dr Gwyn Humphreys, Interim Chief Executive Officer	www.evocutis.com

Zeus Capital Limited
Andrew Jones	Tel: [phone]
Nick Cowles	www.zeuscapital.co.uk

XCAP Securities Plc
Karen Kelly	Tel: [phone]
Halimah Hussain	www.xcapgroup.co.uk

Media enquiries:

Abchurch Communications
Adam Michael / Jamie Hooper	Tel: [phone]
[e-mail]	www.abchurch-group.com

Notes to editors

About Evocutis plc

With a rich portfolio of new product opportunities, Evocutis offers antimicrobial and dermatological expertise to the cosmetic, consumer healthcare and pharmaceutical industries.  Being uniquely able to combine research for laboratory testing, advanced skin models and clinical testing, Evocutis offers a complete service for the development of skin care products and ingredients. Through research and testing we enable our clients to advance the discovery of skin care products that actually work.

Offering high quality contract research services, Evocutis specialises in Human Skin Microbiology, tissue culture systems and Human Volunteer and Clinical Dermatology Research. Unique characteristics of its colonised full thickness model of human skin (LabSkin™) allow rapid, cost effective screening of, for example, anti-ageing, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial ingredients and products for use on skin. Additionally, the clinical, human volunteer testing facility that is housed on-site provides rapid, bespoke evaluation of dermatological products.

When it comes to advanced laboratory and clinical evaluations of skincare products for the health and cosmetic markets, the Evocutis focus is simple: intelligent and specialised R&D input. 

For further information, please see www.evocutis.com

About LabSkin™

LabSkin™ is an animal-replacement technology, that emulates living skin tissue and is a high value research and product testing tool for the cosmetic and healthcare industries. It is a full thickness human skin model, comprised of both dermal and epidermal layers, and is produced exclusively and reproducibly on site at Evocutis from primary human cells (keratinocytes & fibroblasts). The model exhibits a fully differentiated epidermal layer, which provides a completely dry surface for tailored testing requirements.

LabSkin™ is highly versatile, and alongside its antimicrobial model, Evocutis is developing models to test anti-ageing and moisturising products. The antimicrobial LabSkin™ model allows testing using pathogenic microorganisms which would not be possible in human clinical studies. In addition, methods have been developed to allow LabSkin™ to be inoculated with skin washings taken directly from human skin, thus providing a step-change in the quality of data possible from a laboratory model.  By benchmarking activity against best-in-class products, the activity of new ingredients and formulations can be assessed for several antimicrobial endpoints, including immediate kill, rate of kill and residual activity. 

Recent research indicates that our natural microflora is an integral part of our skin and makes a significant contribution to skin health.  LabSkin™ provides a unique living skin surface which is validated for microbial applications and can simultaneously provide information on irritation, penetration, barrier function and skin structure.

 

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