Angle raises £1.2m, swings to a half-year loss

Technology investment company ANGLE has raised £1.2m through a fundraising on the same that it revealed it had swung to a loss in the first half ended October 31st.

The firm said on Thursday that investors will acquire up to 1,715,717 new ordinary shares in the company at a price of 70p per share (a discount of 13.6% on the mid-price of 81p per share at close of business yesterday), to provide funds for the revitalised Novocellus agreement, as well as ensuring that it has enough funding to complete development of the Parsortix cancer diagnostic product for the research market.

In the first six months of the year meanwhile, ANGLE recorded a loss before tax of £1.8m, down from a profit of £0.1m the year before. This was due to the planned increase in ventures and investment costs - primarily in relation to Parsortix - from £0.3m to £0.5m, and a £1.3m impairment of the holding value for the Acolyte Biomedia earn-out, which compared to a fair value gain on investments of £0.2m the year before.

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The firm also announced on Thursday that trials for the firm's Novocellus IVF product, known as EmbryoSure, will begin shortly, with the launch of the product targeted for mid-2014. The company has increased its holding in Novocellus to 92%.

Revenues during the period fell to £0.7m, compared to £1.36m during the same period the previous year.

In a statement the firm said it is entering an important period for value enhancement: "Each of its three major investments has the potential to deliver strong shareholder returns. Funding has been secured to cover the next stage of development, which, if successful, should lead to an overall reduction in project risk and a substantial increase in shareholder value."

The share price fell 4.32% to 77.5p by 13:13.

NR