Optibiotix swings into profit

The York-based listed firm said it made strong progress in the year to November 30 and it has signed a number of commercial deals of increasing value across its product range as it builds multiple revenue streams. The group made a loss of £1.5m the previous year.

Over the year it signed two agreements signed with Tata Chemicals – one for SlimBiome for the Indian market and the second to scale up and manufacture the companies'cholesterol reducing prebiotic.

In all, it signed 10 commercial agreements over the year.

Stephen O’Hara, CEO of OptiBiotix, said: “OptiBiotix has made significant progress in the last 12 months which has seen a growing number of awards for our science and products and an increased deal flow.

"We anticipate both the rate and value of deal flow increasing as we develop new applications, take existing products into new territories, and leverage our technology platforms to develop new product opportunities.

"We are particularly excited by the interest from partners in developing our products into biopharmaceuticals and see this as an area of significant future development and potential value uplift. The last 12 months has been an exciting period of transition for the company with new board appointments, 10 commercial agreements, and an FDA

registration for SlimBiome and LPLDL."

He said the group is pleased with the progress of SkinBiotherapeutics, which is making strong commercial progress and preparing for human studies, which if successful, should provide a substantive uplift in valuation.

"We look forward to an exciting future in this exciting area of science which has the potential to revolutionise the future of health care," he added.

Analyst Mark Brewer at FinnCap said: "Full-year results reflected the year of transitioning from a technology to product-based company.

"Revenues of £190,000 compared with £290,000 in the prior year, reflecting lower contract/research revenues.

"A pre-tax profit of £1.7m includes a £4.1m profit on disposal of SkinBiotherapeutics, which listed in April 2017.

"The company has transitioned from a technology company with three platforms to a product company during the year, exemplified by 10 commercial agreements entered into during the period with a further six executed since the year end.

"This significantly de-risks the business. The focus for the current year will be to begin to convert these agreements into revenues; the timing and quantum of which remains difficult to forecast."