Tekcapital (TEK ) has raised £3.0 million before expenses at a price of 28p a share with the proceeds to be used primarily to accelerate the growth of the Company’s portfolio companies.
The UK intellectual property investment company said the oversubscribed £3m (c.US$4.1m) placing was undertaken by the Company’s financial broker SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP.
Specifically, £3.0m (US$4.1m) before expenses was raised by means of a fundraise through the issue of, in aggregate, 10,714,286 placing shares at a price of 28 pence per share.
The Company noted that £1.5m of the proceeds will be used to build inventory and progress product development for its portfolio company Lucyd of which it owns 100% interest in.
Meanwhile, £0.5m will be used to expand inventory for its subsidiary firm, Salarius, which develops and manufactures the proprietary low-sodium salt MicroSalt® while £0.5m will be used to provide CAPEX for its investee firm Guident’s remote monitoring and control centre.
The remainder of the funds raised will primarily be for additional working capital, it noted.
Commenting on this morning’s raise, Clifford M. Gross Ph.D., Executive Chairman of Tekcapital said: “We are delighted with the support from existing and new shareholders in the Placing which will contribute to the additional near term progress of our portfolio companies.”
Last month, Tekcapital told investors that Innovative Eyewear Inc., a U.S. operating subsidiary of its portfolio fimr Lucyd Ltd, had submitted an application for a proposed IPO in the US.
Earlier in October, Tekcapital also acknowledged a decision made by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to release voluntary sodium reduction goals for the food industry in what the Company described at the time as “a major milestone” for its standing in the US market.
The new set of voluntary sodium reduction goals for the food industry will “provide measurable voluntary short-term (2.5-year) goals for sodium content in commercially processed, packaged, and prepared foods to reduce excess population sodium intake.”
Dr. Jennifer Ashton, Chief Medical Correspondent of broadcast network ABC News said the news “could be the biggest, most important intervention in a generation for public health.”
Tekcapital said this morning’s news marked ‘a significant milestone’ for its subsidiary company, Salarius, which develops and manufactures the proprietary low-sodium salt MicroSalt®. In particular, it believes the new set of US FDA guidelines will encourage snack food manufacturers to reduce the sodium levels in their products across the board.
London-listed Tekcapital owns 97.2% of the share capital of Salarius Ltd. and 87.1% of the share capital of MicroSalt Inc., its U.S. subsidiary.
Salarius anticipates the sodium reduction goals should have a positive impact on both business-to-business (B2B) sales of MicroSalt® and retail sales of SaltMe! Crisps.
As a result, Salarius said it believes that MicroSalt® as a brand “could be viewed as a timely, nationwide solution, to help food companies meet these guidelines without sacrificing the full-flavour of their snack foods, which is key to their successful on-going sales.”
MicroSalt develops a low-sodium salt called MicroSalt®. Its distinguishing feature is its small salt particles-- about one hundred times smaller than typical table salt-- that use a large surface area-to-volume ratio to generate a salty taste while using significantly less salt.
The particles of MicroSalt®, which is non-GMO and Kosher, are around 100 times smaller than table salt, allowing them to rapidly dissolve, producing a large sensation of saltiness.
Decreasing the public’s sodium intake would aid the efforts to curtail heart disease, which according to the British Heart Foundation, causes more than a quarter, 27%, of all deaths in the UK; that’s more than 160,000 deaths each year – or one death every three minutes.
According to Market Researcher Future Market Insights, it is estimated that the sodium reduction market will be worth around $1.76 billion by 2025 with a CAGR of 11.8%.
Microsalt expects SaltMe! to become ‘a national brand’ in the low-sodium-full flavour snack category and that its e-commerce sales should be ‘positively impacted’, given a correlation between retail distribution, brand awareness, and expected increase in ecommerce sales.
It said MicroSalt® as a brand ‘could be elevated to a national-level ingredient,’ which it believes will encourage other food manufacturers to use MicroSalt® into their products.
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