Related party loan to ProAxsis Limited

RNS Number : 2107R

NetScientific PLC

28 February 2023

 

For release: 07.00, 28 February 2023

NetScientific plc

("NetScientific" or "NSCI" or the "Company" or the "Group")

Related party loan to ProAxsis Limited ("ProAxsis")

London, UK - 28 February 2023:  NetScientific plc (AIM: NSCI), the investment and commercialisation group with an international portfolio of innovative life science, sustainability, and technology companies, announces that, on 27 February 2023, its wholly owned portfolio company, respiratory diagnostics specialist, ProAxsis, entered into an unsecured £500,000 six month loan agreement (the "Loan Agreement") with AB Group Limited ("AB Group").

The rate of interest applicable to the loan is 10 per cent. per annum, payable on repayment of the loan. In addition, ProAxsis has granted to AB Group warrants over shares in ProAxsis equal to the value of £150,000 at an exercise price determined by reference to a future third party fundraising of at least £500,000, such price to be discounted by 30 per cent. The warrants have an exercise period commencing on the date of any such third party fundraising and ending on the five year anniversary of the date of the Loan Agreement.

As AB Group, together with other entities associated with Melvin Lawson, is interested in 16.88 per cent. of the issued share capital of NetScientific, its entry into the Loan Agreement represents a related party transaction under Rule 13 of the AIM Rules for Companies.

The Directors of the Company, each of whom is independent of AB Group, consider, having consulted the Company's Nominated Adviser, that the terms of the Loan Agreement are fair and reasonable insofar as the Company's shareholders are concerned. In reaching this conclusion, the Directors have taken into account the limited availability of loan finance to ProAxsis from alternative sources.

Commenting on the Loan Agreement, Dr Ilian Iliev, Chief Executive Officer of NetScientific said :

"A key element of our capital light investment approach is to help our portfolio companies access funding from third parties. We are therefore delighted to have helped secure this Loan Agreement for ProAxsis, which will help it accelerate its commercial and investment strategy in the respiratory diagnostics space. 

"ProAxsis has a growing pipeline of customers for its product and clinical services offering from the UK and internationally, including the US. There is a further internal development on additional novel respiratory diagnostic products. We look forward to further updates from ProAxsis in 2023 as it continues to make important advances to help individuals with airway bacterial infections, and those at the highest risk of suffering pulmonary exacerbations."

-Ends-

The person responsible for arranging the release of this announcement on behalf of the Company is Ilian Iliev, Chief Executive Officer of the Company.

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION FOR THE PURPOSES OF ARTICLE 7 OF THE UK VERSION OF REGULATION (EU) NO 596/2014 WHICH IS PART OF UK LAW BY VIRTUE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION (WITHDRAWAL) ACT 2018, AS AMENDED. UPON THE PUBLICATION OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT VIA A REGULATORY INFORMATION SERVICE, THIS INSIDE INFORMATION IS NOW CONSIDERED TO BE IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.

For more information, please contact:

NetScientific

Ilian Iliev, CEO  Via Belvedere Communications

WH Ireland (NOMAD, Financial Adviser and Broker)

Chris Fielding / Darshan Patel / Enzo Aliaj    [phone]

Belvedere Communications

John West / Llew Angus  [phone]

Email:  [e-mail]

About NetScientific

NetScientific plc (AIM: NSCI) is an investment and commercialisation group with an international portfolio of innovative life science, sustainability and technology companies.

NetScientific identifies, invests in, and builds high growth companies in the UK and internationally. The company adds value through the proactive management of its portfolio, progressing to key value inflection points, and delivering investment returns through partial or full liquidity events.

NetScientific differentiates itself by employing a capital-light investment approach, making judicial use of its balance sheet and syndicating investments through its wholly owned VC subsidiary, EMV Capital. The group secures a mixture of direct equity stakes and carried interest stakes in its portfolio of companies, creating a lean structure that can support a large portfolio.

NetScientific is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, and is admitted to trading on AIM, a market operated by the London Stock Exchange.

www.netscientific.net

About ProAxsis

ProAxsis Limited is a global diagnostics company, based in Northern Ireland, with a specific focus on active protease biomarkers. The company currently commercialises activity-based immunoassays targeting Neutrophil Elastase (NE) and Proteinase 3, as biomarkers of lung infection and inflammation in chronic respiratory diseases such as COPD, cystic fibrosis and bronchiectasis. 

This technology has been translated into a point-of-care test (NEATstik®), to enable ongoing monitoring of active NE levels. Recently published data has shown that measuring active NE levels using NEATstik® enables identification of patients with airway bacterial infection and those patients at highest risk of suffering pulmonary exacerbations over the subsequent 12 months. 

The company has further expanded its respiratory product portfolio via a global in-licensing agreement with AstraZeneca.

In addition to proteases, the company also has significant expertise in the measurement of other inflammatory biomarkers, including IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-alpha. 

Aside from the provision of assays, ProAxsis provides clinical services at its purpose-built laboratory facility in Belfast and is currently supporting a number of pharmaceutical company-sponsored Phase I, II and III clinical trials.

ProAxsis is a wholly owned subsidiary of NetScientific plc.

www.proaxsis.com

 

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