Abingdon Health (LSE:ABDX) — Abingdon Health Full Year Results Presentation

0:00 Good morning, and welcome to the ABDON HEALTH PLC Investor Presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and could be submitted at any time via the Q and A tab situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. However, the company can review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I'd like to submit the following poll. And then I'd like to hand you over to Chris Hand, chairman. Good morning, sir.

0:31 Good morning, and good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining to listen to the presentation of our results for the year ended June 2024. I'm Chris Hand, the chairman of the company, and I'm joined by Chris Yates, the CEO. The first slide gives you an introduction to our board. Myself, my background is in medical diagnostics, thirty plus years in the sector, and previously founded and grew a company in the medical diagnostics natural flow sector called Cozart, which we voted on AIM as we have with ABDON HEALTH, sold that company,

1:10 and then created ABINGDON HEALTH. So my background, as I say, is in medical diagnostics. I'll hand over to Chris to introduce himself, and then I'll talk about Mary and and Max are on the board. That's Andy's. Thanks, Chris. Morning, everyone. I'm Chris Yates. I'm the CEO. As as Chris mentioned, I co founded ABINGDON in 2008 with Chris. My background is diagnostics for the best part of twenty years now, including directorships with, you know, diagnostic systems and Cozar. And prior to that, I was in finance.

1:48 Our other board member, Mary Taverner, she's our senior independent non exec and chair of the audit committee. Mary has a a background in in finance. She was CFO of Amrest in Advanced Medical Solutions, and she's a she's a qualified accountant. Max Duckworth is a board observer, which was a board member prior to IPO. He's an impact investor based in The United States, and he's got a lot of complimentary experience to the other board members and was previously a senior executive in a Fortune 500 energy company. So we've got a good mix and and blend of skills across the board. However, we are now looking to further strengthen our board by the recruitment of a CFO and the recruitment of another independent nonexecutive director. Both of those processes are now underway.

2:42 So the presentation, we'll we'll go through an introduction, give you information on the market and an overview, some highlights of our preliminary results, and then talk a bit more about some recent acquisitions we've done, our key strategic initiatives, and then we'll come on to a summary of of all that and information on Outlook. So at this point, I'll hand over to Chris Yates who will take you through the next stage of the presentation. So over to you, Chris. Thanks, Chris. So by way of background, we're a dedicated lateral flow CRO and CDMO. We effectively try and provide all the different pieces of the jigsaw to allow a customer take an idea all the way through to commercial success. One of the key things that we've been doing over the past couple of years is expanding our service proposition into related areas, such as regulatory, analytical laboratory service, but also things like packaging design, packaging service, and also commercialization, so supporting customers and getting products to market.

3:46 To to deepen to broaden and deepen our regulatory service over the past six months or so, we've acquired two businesses, the first being IVDiology, which we acquired in in May 2024 for up to 700,000. That was paid for in shares. And, also, shortly after the year end, we acquired Compliance Solutions Life Science Group for up to 3,200,000, and that was following successful placing as well for 5,600,000. And Compliance Solutions, again, is a regulatory service group and with a particular focus on The US and and will support our expansion plans into The US going forward. And then the final point is we're sufficiently funded now following the placing to support our next growth phase of the business, and I'll come on and talk about some of those initiatives over the following few slides.

4:38 So just to give you some context on ABDON and this market. So the lateral flow market, which is the main focus of our CRO and CDMO business, is is large and growing. It's a it's a 23,000,000,000 market, and and I think what's important is that product mix continues to change. So COVID, obviously, was a was a big driver of volumes of lateral flow tests, particularly in 2020, '21, '22. But, actually, what we're now seeing is that mix change towards the use of lateral flow in lots of different areas. I think the key advantages of of the technology is it's very simple, cost effective, and easiest to use and supports really the drive towards decentralization of testing. And that can be in clinical, but also in in nonhuman health care areas such as animal health plan pathogen, food testing, environmental testing.

5:24 And and and really we set out to be a a knowledge leader in natural technology and provide, you know, innovative solutions to our customers under a fee for service business model. We are looking to expand our presence within The US to to really kind of take some of the opportunities in what is the largest medical diagnostic market globally. It accounts for about 39% of the global market. And as I mentioned on the previous slide, we've also broadened our market reach now with the two two acquisitions of the regulatory services business. I think one thing to note is compliance solutions group provide regulatory solutions not just to the IVD market, but also to the broader medical device market. And and and, you know, that allows us to obviously expand the opportunity for the for the group in terms of revenue growth.

6:16 In terms of our strategy, it's really twofold. So it's the two sections on the left. So the lateral flow CRO and CDMO is a is a core focus. That accounts for just about 90% of our revenues at this stage. And and as I mentioned, the key there really is to continue to to expand our service proposition and grow our customer base. We'll come on and talk a bit later about some of the expansion that we're doing in terms of building our analytical laboratory service, but also establishing our presence in The US as well. And we will continue to look opportunities to grow by acquisition, albeit there are kind of immediate focus is to is to consolidate the two acquisitions that we've we've already done. On the right hand side, self testing continues to be a a growth area in the lateral flow market, and we we offer a sales and distribution platform to our CDMO customers, but also to other customers.

7:11 And and we work very closely with a number of retailers, probably at the moment in The UK. Strategically, we're looking to obviously expand that initially into Europe and and into The US over time as well. And, obviously, we're very, very pleased with some of the progress that we've made over the course of the last year, particularly with the relationship that we've got with Crest Medical and Boots.

7:35 Okay. So just turning to the final results and the financial highlights for the year ended 06/30/2024. So we saw strong commercial progress across the group. So our revenues for the year were 52% ahead of the prior year. We had a couple of months of IVDiology revenues in there. So excluding that acquisition, revenue growth was 49%. And h two was particularly strong with revenue growth of 55% compared to to h one twenty twenty four. And our gross margin saw improvement as we as we got the benefits of gearing and and putting more products through and more services through. And then the final point to note really is that our our q four was cash flow positive, which obviously is a is a is a very positive signal for us.

8:21 I think in terms of drilling down into that, the the the revenue came from a a diverse range of CDMO customers across our service offering. And so we saw revenue growth across the board really in terms of contract development, technical transfer, manufacturing. And, also, obviously, we we saw revenue coming in as well in areas such as regulatory, which was a relatively new service for us over the course of the last twelve months. Cash balance was 1,400,000 at the end of the year, and we obviously raised 5,100,000 net of expenses post year end as well, which leaves us with a cash balance of post acquisitions of 4,500,000 at the October 4. Adjusted EBITDA losses reduced significantly to 1,100,000 compared to 2,900,000 in the previous year. And we anticipate solid revenue growth in this financial year as well, and our priority remains on on moving the group towards a sustainably positive cash flow position.

9:20 So just turning to some of the operational highlights outlined in the financial results as well. So in terms of our CRO and CDMO revenue business, that saw 51% revenue growth. We we were pleased to see a number of products transfer from development phase into manufacturing. So it's telagnostics, the cyber pregnancy test, a sepsis test, not for diagnostics, a a stroke test, all transferred successfully during the year. And that that's really one of the key priorities for us is really to move those development projects through into manufacturing customers. They tend to be very sticky as manufacturing customers, and we build long term relationships, and it almost turns into a degree of annuity income for us. On the product side, we saw good progress in 2024, particularly the second half, actually. So overall revenues were up about 56% year on year, but importantly, we launched three tests with Boots.

10:16 One of them being our CDMO customer diagnostic cyber pregnancy test, which is branded under Boots' own label. And we also introduced with Crest Medical two additional products to to boost a vitamin d test and a and an iron ferritin test. And it was it was really great to partner with both Crest and and Boots to to bring these products to market. Target for for for this financial year and and beyond is to continue to expand that product range and also broaden our sales and distribution channel both in The UK, but also, I think, importantly, going forward into Europe as well. We also announced in the in the results our expansion into The US. We are looking to open a commercial office and r and d lab in q four of this calendar year, and we're very excited about the opportunity for us to to really build our US presence.

11:07 We have around a third of our revenues derived from The US at the moment, and it's been it's and it's and and that will also grow with the the integration of compliance solutions, which also has a big US presence as well. And we see The US as a major market opportunity for us going forward. And then finally, the placing allowed us to to to really target investment both in product development and the analytical lab service expansion, which we'll come on and talk about bit later.

11:37 So just turning to the recent acquisitions, which I touched upon earlier. So the first one was the acquisition of IV Geology in May. So that was a Kent based UK provider of regulatory services to the IBD market. It was eight people within that business, and we we were we were already working closely with IV Radiology, you know, in a number of projects. We know the team there very well, and we were we're really delighted to bring those in into the group. Highly complementary in terms of our ability to offer those services to our existing customers and vice versa for for IVDiology to offer our services to theirs as well. So so we see great opportunity there. I think the the focus of of IV ideology really is is is around The UK and the European markets, so the IVDD stroke IVDR markets.

12:27 And and as you may know, that that those are going through a significant state of of transition at the moment, and that transition really creates opportunity for us to provide services to allow customers to outsource all of the regulatory requirements they need to fulfill to get products to market and also maintain products on the market as well. The second acquisition was the acquisition of Compliance Solutions, which was completed in the end of August twenty twenty four. So Compliance Solutions, again, is a regulatory service provider. It's a broader service provider in the sense that it provides its customers are IVD customers, but also the broader medical device market as well. It offers services to those customers. And it as you it provides a real, you know, range of services from building quality management systems, preparing technical documentation for regulatory submission, all the way through to supporting clinical trials as well. So, again, compliance solution was a business that we had worked with for a number of years. We knew the team there very well.

13:33 Great reputation. And so, again, we were delighted to to to acquire compliance solutions. And I think, you know, we see great opportunities to to support compliance solutions in with its customer base in The US and also for compliance solutions for ABDX customer base in The US as well going forward. So we see good cross selling opportunities with with both of those recently acquired businesses. Okay. So just touching on the expansion into The US and the management changes that we announced in the financial results. So we're planning to open a commercial office in q four of this kind of year, so basically by the by Christmas. And the reason for that is is The US is obviously the largest diagnostic market globally, can't do about 39% of the global market. It's an it's an area that we've been really active in already.

14:28 As I said, about a third of our revenues come from The US in terms of

14:32 the the the kind of ABDON HEALTH group pre acquisitions. And compliance solutions is already very active in supporting customers and getting FDA approvals in The US, and we see big opportunity. There's a lot of investment gone into The US through various government initiatives such as ABD and RADX. A lot of that funding needs to stay within The US, and therefore, by building a lab presence that allows us to service customers within US and should open up more of the market for us going forward. In order for us to kind of really target that opportunity, my focus going forward would be on global commercial growth and management of those US operations. I'm delighted to to say that Chris Chris Hand has has has agreed to to transition from non exec chair to executive chair to support and manage the day to day operations of the group in The UK.

15:27 And those changes will be effective from next week. And alongside that, we are also looking to to strengthen the board further. So we are looking to bring in a recruit a new CFO and also an additional independent non non exec director, and both of those processes are ongoing. Thanks, Chris. The recent funding, we set out use of funds to include product development and also, establishment of analytical laboratory. Examples of what we're looking to do with product development is really to bring enhanced technology and and enhanced offering to our CDMO customers, but also to look at the development of our own, stand alone products.

16:18 I've listed three examples here of, current activity. The first is the combination of our existing product, the PCRD, which is a PCR d detector, a lateral flow device which, measures the output from a PCR reaction on-site. And we're we're seeing a lot of interest, and we've been promoting a lot lately the combination of that test alongside the isothermal amplification or or PCR as it's known. And that combination, we're looking to bring that PCR testing closer to the patient or closer to the to the need. And we're looking at at various projects currently with this, technology, not only in human health, but also in animal and, other sectors.

17:13 Another, development which we've previously announced is the use of nonplastic cassettes, and we've, we've created the EcoFlow system with our partners at Marama. We're looking at ways in which we can exchange plastic for, plant based material or or not basically, nonplastic material. That's, an ongoing process. We've got the first parts out, which we're evaluating, and we've got a lot of interest from our both current customers and new customers in exchanging the plastic waste that we all see across, the natural flow market with with nonplastic material. And then the third area, as as an example of technology that we're developing is our patented ABDX.

18:04 ABDX is a smartphone based lateral flow reader. It's based on machine learning. And what the, what the system does is the algorithms will first after being trained, will interpret, the results of a lateral flow test and it can capture it, send it wherever it needs to be sent, and, removes the subjectivity you might see from a from a visual interpretation. So those are three examples amongst others of the product developments we're engaged in, and we'll report back in due course with progress on each of these. The other area, of expansion that, really forms a bridge between, current CDMO activity and the acquisitions, the regulatory, activity is our analytical laboratory.

18:59 Following the development of a test, and to allow it to be regulatory approved, we need to do a lot of evaluation and comparison to other methods to allow approval by the likes of the FDA or or to gain, CE marking via the IVDR process. And what our laboratory will do, as I say, is is bring and mesh together the the CDMO offering and the regulatory approval offering that we now have via IVDiology and CS Life Sciences. The type of activity that we'll be doing, and this will be at our Doncaster facility, is to look at the stability of the product, look at how it the sort of standard technical evaluations, really. So detection limits, interference, cross reactivity.

19:46 Importantly, what this lab and our regulatory offering will do is allow us to look at adjacent markets such as PCR, which I've mentioned already, isothermal amplification, another antibody and antigen detection immunoassays, including those used points of care. So that's, as Chris has said earlier, is, is scheduled for the next, three to six months to be fully up and running, but we'll start pretty much straight away. And we're currently fitting out the Doncaster facility to to be able to offer this service.

20:24 And then summary and outlook. As you've seen, we've had solid commercial progress, with revenues 52% ahead of last year. The acquisitions of iVideology and Compliance Solutions really do enhance our service offering and bring the the one stop shop to our customer base. The addition of the laboratory services, as I've just said, will further enhance that. We expect continued solid revenue growth in this financial year, financial year 2025 through to June, and the expansion into The USA and, the management changes that we've just described will support this growth plan. We're very excited about The USA opportunity, and we're sufficiently funded to support this next phase of growth.

21:16 So, that concludes the presentation. We'd be happy to take questions.

21:24 Thank thank you both very much for your presentation. If I may just bring back up your cameras. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions just by using the q and a tab situated on the top right hand corner of your screen. Just while the company take a few moments to review those questions submitted today, I'd like to remind you that a recording of this presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published Q and A can be accessed via investor dashboard. As you can see, we received a number of questions throughout today's presentation. Paul, could I please ask you to read out the questions and give responses where appropriate to do so? And I'll pick up from you at the end. Thank you very much. I just wanted to say that we did have a couple of questions that, unfortunately, the company can't answer. These are specifically about commercial arrangements, so they couldn't be disclosed because of confidentiality and commercial sensitivity. So apologies if if those aren't addressed.

22:11 One of the questions that I have there, Chris, is is about Salastiq and the availability in markets outside of Nordics, UK, and Israel. They're not available outside of those. Could you give an indication of when that will be? So so SALagnostics is the company that owns the SALISTIC brand and product. Obviously, we're supporting them in terms of the CDM activities and also distributing the product into The UK in a number of retailers, including Boots and and Superdrug as well. Starting off the strategies to build slowly. Obviously, we're keen to support in in growing the number of markets that which is in. That is a continued kind of agenda point in our discussions with them, and and, hopefully, in due course, we're able to support them in in in expanding into new territories.

23:04 Thank you. I have a question regarding Find Out. Could you give us an update on Find Out? Are you a director yet? What about the fifth test? What is it? And are the other four now in manufacturing? Could you help me understand why you valued it at more than £2,000,000 and what the current commercial launch timelines are? Is there something special about these tests? Okay. So so find out, just by way of background, is is a CDMO customer of ours that is developing a number of sexually transmitted disease tests. We're very excited about that that this is an opportunity. The sexually transmitted disease market is is somewhere in the region of $14,000,000,000 and growing, and it's an area that that continues to be significant unmet need.

23:50 In terms of the products, there's clearly some commercial commercial kind of confidentiality here. What I can say is is that the the products and that successfully transitioned into into manufacturing. The next phase of that is is to find out to to basically do the regulatory work to get those products to market. ABDON will support on that in terms of it being a service that we'll provide. And in terms of the other opportunities where just in terms of additional tests, there are actually three additional tests that we're exploring. We find out, and we're looking at ways in which we can work together to kind of bring those products to market as well. With regards to the valuation, that was really done on obviously, it's a negotiation in terms of the valuation of of Findout.

24:37 It it hit a number of milestones and basically reduced the risk. For example, getting the products to check, through tech transfer is a is a key milestone. And they'd also find out they'd also invested significant funds to date. So the valuation was based was based on, you know, an element of uplift of the investment that find out had done to date. Our investment was in lieu of technical transfer revenues. And as you as you can imagine, our the actual cash cost to us was lower than the revenues because clearly we make a margin on those revenues as as a matter of course. So, yeah, just I guess to summarize, we're still continuing continue to work. We find out we we see a big opportunity for sexually transmitted disease self tests both in the in Europe, The UK, and also The US. And, clearly, we've got some, you know, interesting routes to market that we're building for those products as well.

25:31 Thanks, Chris. One of the shareholders has said that NALFEA is very interesting, nucleic acid lateral flow immunoassays. The question is, are we involved in developing malaria and or VL tests? And if so, could you give any details or timelines? And there's also a similar question that you might want to answer at the same time asking the question of whether you're placing a well, having placed a lot of emphasis on the lateral flow test molecular crossover. Do you have a a lot in the pipeline in that respect, and will this help sales of PCRD? Yeah. I'll answer that one, Paul. Thanks. I I I mentioned in the in the presentation that one of the areas of our developments is PCRD. PCRD, just for for clarity, that is NALFIA, so nucleic acid, lateral flow, immunoassay. It's it's one and the same thing.

26:23 So we're that that is a product we sell to our customers.

26:27 It's also the basis of various contract development projects that we're looking at where, as I said in the presentation, we're we're combining the the PCRD, which exists with with the molecular aspect of of an ALPHA. So, yes, it is something we're looking at. And as I said, again in the presentation, we're looking at it both across human health and animal health. There are challenges with, bringing PCR more to the point of need in that, generally, there's a need to heat the system. That's that's the isothermal element of it. But we're looking at ways in which we can, we can deal with that and manage that.

27:13 And as I say, we've got various projects ongoing, which we'll report back on in in due course. Thank you. I appreciate you gave an update on your expansion plans into The US on slide 10, but we had a question that was asking about the fact that there's a lot of focus from ABINGDON on The US market. Was the purchase of CS, life sciences, intended to accelerate customer or product access to that market given their US links with RAF solutions? And what are your plans for expansion in The US? Yes. Absolutely. I think one of the key opportunities with the acquisition of Compliance Solutions was its presence in The US. Compliance Solutions Group has around a 100 customers and, you know, a significant minority of those customers are US customers.

28:01 So that provides us with a great opportunity to to do cross selling. As I mentioned as well, the the you know, about a third of ABDON's revenues historically have been from The US. So I think there's some really good opportunities to to to to provide more services to our existing customers, so effectively increase the revenue per customer by offering them more services, number one. And then number two, by having a presence in The US, I think, you know, having a kind of commercial presence in The US, we can we can really kinda tap into what is a a large and and fast growing medical device market. A question on regulation. This seems to be a real blocker to commercialization. Could you briefly explain the regulatory process here and in The EU and in The US with emphasis on where the real obstacles are and how ABINGDON are helping developers overcome them?

28:54 Yeah. I I think the key here for us as a company and as a group is we now have an extensive regulatory offering to our customer base. So it's important that this sort of product does have regulatory approval, and it goes through the various testing processes to show that, the product's fit for purpose. So rather than a blocker, I would see it now as a a bring in extra string to ABO in that we can we can help our customers navigate the regulatory approval processes, whether they're in Europe by by the new IVDR regulations or the FDA, creating of technical files, submitting presubmissions to the FDA, all that type of thing that is needed to be done, we can we can help our customers navigate that process. So I don't really see it as a blocker. I see it as a more as as a necessary process, and we can help do that whole the whole of that, including the analytical services now that we've got the new lab being set up in in Doncaster.

30:03 Thank you, Chris. There were a couple of questions just regarding director shareholdings and and purchases. One was why didn't the directors participate in the most recent raise? And then the second question was regarding close periods. Could you confirm what close periods director dealings at ABD at ABDON has in its dealing policy? Yeah. We didn't participate in the latest offering. There's a number of reasons. One, we've currently got about 65% of our shares not held in in public hands. It's important for us to improve the amount of liquidity in the free float.

30:49 Having said that, Chris and I, between us, own over 10% of the company, and we both invested, £250,000 each in the last placing. And, and and also, for example, I've bought shares in the open market, which we've announced. So I think, we're very much aligned with shareholders. You know, it's not it's not that we have a a minor or or or trivial shareholding. We've got substantial shareholdings in the company. And so I think, yeah, it's, it's really for us a question of trying to increase the free float rather than bringing more shares into our ownership where we're only we own a sort of 20,000,000 shares already between us. So those I think, hopefully, that summarizes the reason for that and and illustrates that we are very much aligned with shareholders already.

31:39 Thanks, Chris. I appreciate you might be limited to what you've disclosed in the r and s today, but there was a question regarding the trading performance so far in this financial year and also then how future performance is looking. Are we maintaining cash flow positivity? Yeah. So I think just to make maybe just follow-up on on the previous question first. So I think just around close periods, just to answer that. So we follow the rules, obviously, around close periods in terms of timing of when we can trade and card trade, and and we're and we're guided by our nominated adviser as well, and we obviously seek advice from them. In terms of trading performance, I think we're gonna see a similar pattern to the previous two years with a with a h one, h two split, h one being quieter than h two.

32:28 And I think that will that will continue to this financial year. As we set out in the in the financial results statement, again, plan is to is continue to kind of look for strong growth in this financial year as well. And, obviously, you know, one of the key things that we're really keen on is to see this cross selling coming through across IV ideology compliance solutions and and ABDON HEALTH kind of legacy business as well. Thank you. There's a congratulations on the boots tie up, and I appreciate you might be limited about what you can say without Boots' permission. But the question is, are there plans in the pipeline to get more of your own label products into Boots or other major retailers? What can you tell us? Yeah. So as I as I previously mentioned, I think we're really delighted to to build the partnership with with with Quest Medical and Boots. It takes time to to build the level of trust and and also to understand, you know, where where Boots, for example, strategy is going with regards to rapid testing. I think from from an ABDON point of view, really, we want to be the lateral flow experts and to support, you know, retailers such as Boots in in expanding their self testing product portfolios.

33:39 You know, some of the activities that we're involved in are obviously, we're sourcing an innovative test through our CDMO platform, Sally Stick being a prime example of that. But, also, we're sourcing products from from elsewhere for boots as well. We're we're validating them. We're ensuring that they're kind of fit for purpose. We're auditing the suppliers, whether that's, you know, going to different parts of the world and doing a full kind of audit of those products. So we're we're and also we're doing the packaging and and and supporting on the logistics. So there's an an awful lot in that. I think it's a great model for us. We'd like to obviously deepen the relationship with Boots over time, but, also, it's a great model that we can use with other retailers and, I I think, particularly with, you know, with European retailers going forward. Thank you. Are there any customers using ABDX, somebody asks? If so, could you give us any indication of how many? And do we still have an agreement in place with DCN to provide DCN customers with ABDX?

34:36 So ABDX is still really in the development phase. We are continuing to build the current portfolio with with regards to ABDX. As we set out in the placing, one of the key activities that we're looking to do is product development. And ABDX, you know, we're looking for ABDX to form part of that and to really differentiate these products in the market. So from a from in terms of ABDX, the the focus really is is on supporting our own product development plans at this time. And in terms of the DCN relationship, no. That that that's really that no longer exists. We're very much focused on kinda keeping ABDX in house and and and, I I guess, leveraging the IP that we've built there in terms of our own product development. Thank you. In January, you said we had 29 ongoing projects.

35:24 How many do we currently have, and how many products have now transferred to manufacturing? So we I mean, we we continue to work on a significant number of prod projects. I think we're not gonna kind of update on a on a results by results basis in terms of this. It it was done previously just to indicate that this kind of turnaround that we've had from from pretty much having, you know, zero non COVID projects a couple of years ago to having a significant portfolio. In terms of the products that we're transitioning to manufacture, think we highlighted three in the final result statement. Obviously, as I said, the the key for us is to continue to kind of build that portfolio of products in in manufacture. And I think that's really gonna be a kind of key priority for the course of the next couple of years.

36:12 Thank you. Just turning to longer term plans. Is there any long term intention to sell the company as you did with Cozar, Chris? I I think it our plan is to continue to grow the company to continue to create value. It I think it's gonna be dangerous to have a a plan of trying to exit because then you take the focus away from growing the company. So, we're a public company, but our focus is on growth, but in terms of revenue, in term and in terms of value of the company. So, yeah, I think that's a succinct answer. Thank you. Probably coming back to you, Chris h, Chris Hans.

36:59 The question is regarding house product development, and you you touched on that on the slide. £3,000,000 from the recent raise has been allocated to this. I know you gave three examples on the slide, but the investor asks, is there any more specific indication about what test you're looking to develop, why, and what kind of time scales? No. We we won't be more specific at this point for commercial reasons, really. It's it's not sensible to to announce what we're what we're working on over and above the the general outline that I've given. It it simply gives advantages to our competitors, so we'll update as of when we can. I understand the interest from shareholders, but it's not it's not sensible to talk about every development project we're looking at other than to give an outline that we've as we have already.

37:55 Yeah. Understood. The next question is, are the EcoFlow cassettes now being offered to customers? And if so, what's the level of interest? Yeah. Again, I touched on that in the presentation. There's an there's an an awful lot of interest that we're we're at a stage where we can show physical samples to our customer base, and we're we're evaluating the actual units ourselves. So, yeah, it's it's all progressing as as planned. I think we said originally that we would have devices ready for to show in September, which we did. So, yeah, it's all it's all going to plan, and and there is a lot of interest as you would expect because of the the massive amount of waste across the lateral flow industry.

38:44 Generally, you know, the the the plastic waste waste is very, very high. Thank you. There's a question. Somebody spotted that you'd incorporated a new subsidiary, ABINGDON HEALTH PLC, why why we've done that. Yeah. That was a that a good spot. So we'd yeah. We we incorporated that recently. We see a big opportunity for ABINGDON Analytical as a dedicated analytical lab focusing initially on the IVD market. We think there's a there's a gap in the market really for that sort of service. So we'd like to, you know, we'd like to repurpose the Doncaster site, and we'd like to to to build out the team, our analytical and for it to stand on its own two feet. Whilst So it will be supported in terms of, you know, opportunities coming through, iVDX compliance solutions, and and ABINGDON HEALTH, we'd also like that business to, you know, market itself and bring in, projects independently.

39:43 So that's really the reason to set it up as a standalone entity. And as I said, we we see really good opportunity with that. We we already have, you know, got a couple of, you know, new business wins recently, which are primarily analytical works, you know, things like stability trials. So, again, we we we sense there's a there's a good opportunity to kind of build on that and, know, expand that service, as Chris mentioned earlier, you know, outside of lateral flow into other areas of the IVD market as well. Thank you. You put an LTIP in place in December 2022. Are you able to disclose what the revenue and adjusted EBIT criteria need to be achieved in order to for options to vest? Yeah. I don't think we I don't think we disclose that in our public information. I think all I'd say is that those are stretch targets in order to achieve those.

40:34 But, yeah, obviously, we'd we'd provide more information if those targets are met. I've got a presubmitted question on manufacturing and then also an additional one that's come in during the presentation. What is your current manufacturing capacity at ABDXON? How much of the capacity are we using, and what products are we actually making for commercial sale? And then a question came in asking whether putting a new lab in Doncaster impacts your manufacturing capacity. So maybe you could tackle both of those. Yeah. So our our manufacturing capacity is is still in the region of kind of, you know, significant double digit millions of of of lateral flow tests. So, you know, in the region of kind of 40 to 50,000,000 lateral flow tests. We are not not using anywhere near that level of capacity at the moment, so there is there is plenty of scope for us to expand.

41:23 And as I said, that's one of the key intentions is to expand that manufacturing volume over time. In terms of the products we're making, it's a really diverse range of products. So we we make, you know, we make the pocket diagnostic range. We obviously a a number of projects for, you know, CDMO customers that have been with us for a number of years. So the likes of Zoetis is a is a good example of that. And, obviously, we're introducing new products as well over time. I think think the other use of the manufacturing is in technical transfer. So any technical transfer needs to do three batches, and, obviously, we do a numb a number of those technical transfers at any one time, and that that uses that uses the the manufacturing capacity, the manufacturing team as well to to actually, you know, produce those batches.

42:13 I think I don't can't if I answered all of the questions. Doncaster. Doncaster. Yeah. So so Doncaster continues to be a kind of second site for us, but we will also, you know, primarily use Doncaster for doing analytical lab work, but it's but it it will also still be available as a second manufacturing site. The the reason we acquired Doncaster was really during the COVID pandemic to allow us to have a second manufacturing site in case it was an issue in York. I think now we're kind of, let's say, through the pandemic, that's less of a risk, but it we still retain the ability to manufacture product at. Thank you. Also, somebody is asking, are you gonna consider any further acquisitions? I think we will continue to look for opportunities to to accelerate our growth in line with our strategy.

43:04 You know, we are an aimlessly company. I think the ability to use paper for acquisitions is something that that is a reason to be our name and and and is attractive. However, as our immediate priority is really the integration of the two acquisitions that we've just done. You know, we need to, you know, simplify the back office, you know, across all three businesses now, number one. And number two, you know, we need to look at getting you know, maximizing those cross selling opportunities. So I think, you know, acquisitions, yeah, definitely part of the strategy going forward. But I think in the short term, we've we've got a lot of work to do in terms of integration. Thank you. We've got some questions that came in during the presentation. One was just asking a question regarding the admin expenses. Obviously, you've got impressive gross gross profit, but there there is, I think, 5,000,000 of admin expenses.

43:56 How distinct is the line between cost of sales and admin expenses? And the question that I guess this is where the auditors guide you, but are there admin expenses that could alternatively be viewed as cost of sales and therefore decrease gross profits? Also, you know, what are the significant aspects of these admin expenses? Yeah. I think there there's a couple of points. So I think from a cost of sales point of view, obviously, it's anything to do with directly producing products or or providing services. So that's how we that's how we allocate, you know, primarily our labor between, you know, cost of sales and also admin expenses is is on the basis as, you know, all those people, you know, they're only providing, you know, revenue or they're providing, you know, support.

44:42 So I think, you know, clearly, that's that's a key area of focus during the audit. I think we have a consistent approach, importantly, year on year in terms of how we kind of look at those different aspects. And I think if you look at our gross profit, you know, year on year, it's up you know, the margin is up to 60%. You know, we're seeing that kind of revenue growth, you know, drop down to the gross profit line, which is encouraging. And I think importantly, in a in a continued inflationary environment, we actually, I think, did a pretty good job in in keeping our administrative costs down. Actually, they were lower than the previous year. And in an environment where we've been seeing kind of, you know, double digit inflation in certain aspects of the business, I think that's been a really encouraging sign. Thank you. I warned you now, Chris. It it may be you're not able to answer this question. It's a question regarding CS Life Sciences' trading history. Because, obviously, when the r and s was issued, you you put in the performance on revenue and EBITDA for June 2022, June 2023.

45:42 An investor was wondering about the performance of revenue and EBITDA for June 2024. I suspect given that you haven't disclosed that, you may not be able to answer that question, but I thought we we should at least address the shareholders' question. Yeah. Sure. It's a it's it's a it's just a timing issue in terms of the sign off of their statutory accounts. Obviously, they they kind of worked on a different type of table, like solutions historically. And so we disclosed we disclosed so far the audited numbers more than more than more than than than more more. Actually, there's a lot of work now going on integrating solutions in Thank you.

46:29 There is a question regarding the fact that you're manufacturing the loop and upfront tests. The question is, how involved do you end up being in assisting the sales process of these products after manufacture? Well, we're we're always available to support and assist, and and we're always really keen to do that. And and and I think that's something that we, you know, we feel very passionate about getting supporting our customers and getting our products to market. We have a kind of long history in the in the industry and therefore have a really good network of Chris and myself and other people within the organization. And so if we can open doors and make introductions and and support in terms of getting products to market, we absolutely will do that. And and, certainly, in in both of those examples, you know, that has been I've had an active dialogue with kind of the leadership of of both of those organizations, supporting them and getting their products to market and and providing, you know, support to do that. So, yeah, we we as I said, we try and provide all the different pieces of the jigsaw. Some of that is formal in terms of, you know, the service proposition, but some of it is informal in terms of, you know, working with customers and supporting them and and making introductions if we can.

47:39 I have one more question regarding treasury management and the finance income of 31 k of interest. Given your cash balances over the year, you know, is that a low number? Could you perhaps elaborate on the finance income number? Yeah. I mean, we we we actively kind of manage our our our balances as you would imagine in terms of, you know, putting cash on deposit where we can. Think going forward, we we've obviously got a high cash balance now in this financial year. We do have cash on deposit now, you know, gaining a a decent degree of interest. So it's something that we continue to kind of consider on a on a on a weekly basis really in terms of what the cash requirements of the business is and also what we're we're comfortable putting on deposit for whether it's, you know, one month or three months or or longer term. So, yeah, it's absolutely part of our treasury strategy.

48:35 Thank you. At at the beginning of the meeting, I did apologize for saying that there were some questions that we couldn't answer because of specific commercial arrangements. And, you know, some have come through in the in the in the questions during the presentation that you wouldn't be able to disclose because of confidentiality or commercial sensitivity. But that does end the questions that we have there, Chris. Chris Yates, if I could maybe hand over to you to give a a short summary and overview to to leave us for our presentation today. Thanks, Paul. Yeah. So firstly, thank you everyone for joining and for the questions as well. I think in summary, we had a really solid financial year, year ended June 24 in terms of commercial traction and also maintaining good cost control.

49:21 Also, I think we've put some additional building blocks in with the acquisitions of IV Geology and Compliance Solutions and the investment in the analytical lab, which provide us with additional growth opportunities going forward. So I think as a as a board, we're optimistic for the future, and I think the key target for us, as Chris had mentioned earlier, is to continue to grow the top line, keep cost under control, and and move the business towards profitability and cash flow positivity. Thank you both for updating investors today. Now Can please ask investors not to close the session as you'll now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order that the management team can better understand your views and expectations. This may only take a few moments to complete, and I'm sure be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of ABINGDON HEALTH PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good morning to you all.