Fundraising & AIM Admission of Direct Investment

RNS Number : 4811D

Mercia Technologies PLC

07 July 2016

 

For release at 7.00am

7 July 2016

Mercia Technologies PLC

Fundraising & Admission to AIM of Direct Investment, Concepta Diagnostics,

Mercia to Increase Direct Investment

Mercia Technologies PLC ("Mercia" or "the Group", AIM:MERC) is pleased to announce the  admission to AIM ("Admission") of Concepta Diagnostics Ltd ("Concepta"), one of its portfolio companies, by way of a reverse takeover of Frontier Resources International plc ("Frontier") accompanied by a fundraising (the "Transaction"). Frontier will be renamed Concepta PLC on Admission.

Through the proposed subscription, placing and open offer, Frontier intends to raise c£3.5million in new funds to support the continued growth of the business, with Mercia investing £1.0million.

On 9 May 2016, Mercia announced that it had invested £400,000, via a convertible loan note, into Concepta.  Enterprise Ventures, which was acquired by the Group in March 2016, had previously provided third party, early stage capital via the Finance Yorkshire Seedcorn Fund, in line with Mercia's Complete Capital model. Following the Transaction, Mercia will hold approximately 18.34% of Concepta PLC directly.

This Transaction reinforces the strategic rationale behind Mercia's acquisition of Enterprise Ventures.  A key value driver behind the acquisition was to enable Mercia to expand the pipeline of opportunities from which it can make direct investments into business developed over time through its managed third party funds and Concepta is a perfect example of this strategy in action.

Concepta is a healthcare company operating in the area of fertility and, more specifically, in the global market segment of unexplained infertility.  Concepta's market-ready products target the personalised mobile health market. A copy of Frontier's Admission Document is available at www.friplc.com.

Completion of the Transaction is subject to approval by Frontier's shareholders in a General Meeting scheduled for 25 July 2016 and Admission. It is anticipated that the Transaction will be completed and Admission becomes effective on 26 July. A further announcement will be made in due course.

This announcement contains inside information as defined in Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation No. 596/2014 and is disclosed in accordance with the Company's obligations under Article 17 of those Regulations.

For further information, please contact:

Mercia Technologies PLC Mark Payton, Chief Executive Officer Martin Glanfield, Chief Financial Officer www.merciatechnologies.com	[phone]
Cenkos Securities plc Ivonne Cantu / Mark Connelly (NOMAD to Mercia)	[phone]
Buchanan Sophie McNulty, Victoria Hayns, Stephanie Watson www.buchanan.uk.com	[phone]

About Mercia Technologies PLC

Mercia is a national investment group focused on the creation, funding and scaling of innovative businesses with high growth potential from the UK regions. Mercia now benefits from 18 university partnerships and 6 offices across the Midlands, the North of England and Scotland, providing it with access to high quality, regional deal flow.  Mercia is quoted on AIM with the epic "MERC".

Mercia's "Complete Capital Solution" investment model initially nurtures businesses via its third party funds under management (expanded to circa £220.0million following its acquisition of Enterprise Ventures) and then over time Mercia can provide further funding to its Emerging Stars thanks to its ability to deploy direct investment follow-on capital from its own balance sheet.

In a recent report (Source: Beauhurst, The Deal, 2015/16), Mercia was found to be the fifth most active investor in the UK and the fourth most active in technology.  Since its IPO in December 2014, the Company has invested over £24.0million directly across its portfolio of Emerging Stars and continues to seek both early stage third party investment opportunities as well as providing its direct investments with the required capital and management support to build towards exits that will realise incremental value for Mercia shareholders over the medium term.

About Concepta Diagnostics Ltd

Based in York, and founded by a group of experienced scientists who previously worked for Unipath Limited in the fields of fertility and women's health, Concepta has developed a range of market-ready products. Its product range recently achieved product registration in one of its largest target markets, China, where the abolition of China's one-child policy is expected to drive significant demand for a cost-effective at-home fertility monitoring system as parents seek to have additional children. Concepta's product range provides reliable data to women for a variety of fertility applications, using proprietary disposable test strips and devices linked to a mobile app which captures levels of key fertility hormones in urine and builds an accurate and easy-to-understand "digital diary". 

 

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