Emv Capital (LSE:EMVC) — Results and Company Update

0:01 Good afternoon, and welcome to the Next Scientific PLC Results and Company Update Investor Presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and can be accessed at any time via the Q and A tab situated in the right hand corner of your screen. Just simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it received during the meeting itself.

0:23 However, company will review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it is appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you over to John Clarkson, Chairman. Good afternoon to you, sir. Thank you very much indeed for the introduction, and thanks to everybody in the audience for joining us this afternoon for the presentation of the year end accounts. That's for the 12/31/2021 with our reports and accounts. And as you'd expect, we'll be covering part of that as history, but also setting the direction for the future. Likewise, as you'd expect, we have our standard disclaimer, which I'll take as read for this purpose, but moving quickly in then to this afternoon's agenda. I'm conscious that some of you know a little bit about NetScientific.

1:11 Some of you know a lot about NetScientific. So I'll go lighter on the introduction to start with, but conscious that if you do require further information, then very happy to cover that in the q and a at the end. I mean, giving you a little bit of context and moving to the all important part of our strategy and in particular, the implementation of that, and then to talk you through the what have been very good results in 2021. And now at that point, I'll hand over to Ilian Ilief, our CEO, to take you through in more detail, highlighting certain aspects of the progress and very much pointing the direction of the way forward. And we'll close then with a short summary, leaving most of the time today for your questions and answers. And we look forward to that dialogue and discussion.

2:03 So let me just recap. NetScientific, and I always want to emphasize an active holding company, very much an active business, so not a passive investor, but an active company. But we do invest in, develop, commercialize with a specific objective of realizing returns from our target sectors. And those target sectors being life sciences and healthcare, sustainability and technology. And also we're very pleased that from a group point of view, we can leverage the strong transatlantic relationships, pushing the global opportunities with the specific objective of delivering shareholder value. So that's NetScientific, the introduction. Not going to go through this in too much detail because I think some of you are beginning to know us as a team, but we now have a board providing the general direction leadership working together, providing the corporate governance with myself as the executive chairman, bringing the broader business and finance perspective.

3:08 Ilian, who brings excellent credentials from an entrepreneurial venture capital and all that goes with that from a broad portfolio of experience. We're very lucky to have Professor Stephen Smith as a non executive director, not only an excellent scientist who covers academia, but also very much a commercially minded man with good international experience. And then Clive Sparrow provided an extra corporate governance of chairing the audit committee, asking us the tough questions and driving the business. And pleased to say we are complemented as a team by Stephen Crow, a very experienced CFO. In addition to that, we have a good strong operating team and as and when needed, we call in experts and from our advisory group where we need them. So a good team to go forward with.

4:06 And in that context, it is a change team. Looking back very briefly at the history of Med Scientific, some of you know it from old, listed an AIM in 2013 backed by a lot of Woodford cash and with a logical approach of investing in transatlantic healthcare. And that logical approach identified in that circle diagram to take balance sheet cash, identify the right opportunities, invest in those companies, help them incubate, help them grow with the objective of returning not just the capital, but the additional value to shareholders. But the hard reality of life is it totally underperformed, so fundamental change was necessary from 2020.

4:56 Ilyan and I joined the board at that point and started off with a strategic review. And the good news coming out of it was that the science of the markets were good. There was a strong underlying asset value, but lack the management and commercial discipline. So hence, a new strategy to deliver shareholder returns. And this is what we have been doing. We embarked upon that growth strategy and the implementation. So straightforward proactive commercial management. That process now is being proven, but it's not a blanket one size fits all company, very much tailored to the needs of each individual company.

5:42 One of the needs is inevitably investment, but we look at that on a case by case basis, looking at it from the evaluation against criteria, what is needed and when, and that is both from a strategic point of view, but also tactical decisions. So it's the right money in the right format. And we're looking always to get the enhanced returns on those deals and increasing the revenue that goes with it. Differentiating from previous NetScientific when it was all balance sheet cash, we have an excellent approach in what we call capital light investment. So NetScientific will form a judgment on the company, look at that from a an investment perspective to decide how much to invest, but use that limited amount of PLC cash.

6:34 So it's not putting everything in for the PLC, putting a modest amount in the right state, the right quantum, but then with the EMVC network bringing in syndicated third party funding, which in turn leads to capital under advisory. So from that model enables us to grow and as we've demonstrated, we now have an enhanced portfolio repeating the attractive sectors, very much meeting the ESG criteria And now we have multiple options to go forward and we see post COVID as increasing those opportunities. So in summary, we are well positioned for growth.

7:19 We are focused on the value inflection, the exit and liquidity events to realize those shareholder returns. So it's not just the growth, it's what are we ultimately aiming for and how quickly can we get there. We have a scalable platform now with the resources and infrastructure to deliver and we invest in that as and when needed. So it's not speculative and wide, it's very much focused. And the other area which Ilian will say more about in a moment is building on our transatlantic relationships, reinforcing that to exploit the potential in that relationship, but also harnessing synergies across the group. And in that way, and realizing shareholder value.

8:08 So looking back to 2021, it was the year of excellent progress. It was that step change in the company's fortunes from the dull days and dire days of early twenty twenty, a fundamental change both strategically and tactically. And the highlights summarize briefly now and then exemplify more in a moment. We completed the turnaround successfully. So practically, the hard work done, the turnaround achieved, then with the successful placing last year of the 7,700,000, we were able to accelerate the investments and the strategy. So we have the plans in place. It wasn't so much that we had to go and find new opportunities, but we were able to capitalize on those opportunities sooner rather than later.

9:01 And that's through a structured process. So in that accelerated program, we are still applying rigid processes and discipline. So it's that application that we want to continue to use to build successfully and firmly for the future. The good news is we've been able to further expand the portfolio going from 17 to 22 companies now, and that's in the sectors we where we want to be and, in particular, in key locations. So, very, very carefully thought through on how we've done those deals. And perhaps most importantly, from an investment perspective, the financial position has been transformed.

9:48 A much stronger balance sheet, cash in the account, and very much demonstrating the increases both in fair value and capital under advisory. So 50% increase in both of those, and then a 156 increase in total assets. So a good position to be in, and we will drive forward from here.

10:14 In terms of then, that's the overview picture. Looking at it from a portfolio point of view, the portfolio is significantly enhanced. From a management point of view, we want, obviously, a well balanced portfolio, but we then have to manage that portfolio. And we look at that in three specific elements. There are the subsidiaries where we drive more work together with the management, making sure we're focused on commercialization, generating sales and revenue, but also that we have the operations in place and the ability to deliver. Then as just been describing, we have direct investments going through that considered evaluation process, looking at where there are attractive deals to be done, and making sure that tactically, we are able to deliver those deals.

11:11 And, fortunately, we get a lot of good opportunities, so no shortage of the opportunities. And then the other area, has been complemented in the portfolio with the acquisition of EMVC in 2020, bringing in the capital under advisory, providing not only the capital growth and deal flow, but also generating fee revenues alongside those capital returns. And it's a a typical model where in terms of fundraising, we take the normal fees, but also take typically 20% of the capital growth, 15 to 20%. And what we've also found as we've been implementing the strategy is that getting in the skin of the company, getting to really know that company has enabled us to target more carefully.

12:05 So as a result of that, we now have another selection of companies that we have targeted for that deeper ownership. We take the right level investment that can be secondary buying shares from secondary sellers who we can take a good price on, but then we can get involved in the business and give it greater focus. And our criteria for that in very crude financial terms is those companies which we believe can exit for 50 to 100,000,000 or plus, and that will deliver returns in the sense of capital returns to NetScientific in the order of 5,000,000 to 10,000,000, again, plus. So that specific targeting and in the context of NET Scientific, very material contributions.

12:55 As we look at that application using the funds effectively, we have got targeted expansion, as I mentioned, Cambridge and Lurvin, and Ilian will say more about each of those in a moment. We've directly invested 4,500,000 in 2021 in '8 portfolio companies and in our three subsidiaries, and that is timing that funding and support. So it's not just money, it's support right through the company's life cycle to exit or the liquidity event. And hence, we have that robust and consistent portfolio in our target sectors, all importantly, with a logical growth path. And I won't try to confuse you with too many logos, but just to demonstrate the breadth of the business, 22 companies, US, UK, Europe and one in Israel. So a good portfolio, and it's that combined portfolio that gives us that ability to deliver enhanced performance, but also mitigate the risk. Where in the real world, not every one of the 22 will succeed equally well, but in that breadth, we will expect to see the winners.

14:13 And, yes, inevitably, there may be the odd loser, but we're concentrating on the winners. We're concentrating on success. And Ilya will talk us through some of the highlights and the KPIs of that success. So thank you for listening so far. Thank you, John. And, of course, I mean, as John as John highlighted, you know, it's been an extremely busy year for us. Sometimes it's amazing how how much or how little time has passed. It's only eighteen months since the turnaround started. And from our perspective, you know, this is we don't remember the beginning in many ways. So this is a different business to what we found in the middle of two thousand and twenty. In terms of the results, specifically, fair value has increased by 46% last year from 21,000,000 to 31,000,000, and we anticipate further growth. This has been driven by objective developments across the portfolio. It's not one or two companies. It's multiple companies contributing towards this fair value increase.

15:12 And our focus will remain on driving value and crystallizing value in the exist in the existing assets. And I'll give you some examples in the coming slides. CAPITAL under advise you as we as you heard, is a new tool that came in through the acquisition of EMV CAPITAL, and this is think of it as a in house venture capital fund where we are syndicating investment from other investors, taking a carry in case of profit, and this provides that added tool, added accelerator to returns for for for NetScientific. That has increased by 50% last year from 14,600,000 to 22,000,000, again, giving that extra leverage to the money invested by Net Scientific from the balance sheet. Now we expect capital under advisory to continue to grow at a brisk pace through the further funding we provide to the portfolio companies and new projects through the EMV CAPITAL tool.

16:06 We have a pipe pipeline of further deals for for this year, and it's not just names on a spreadsheet. These are engagements with companies with specific contractual work as well as a strong map of transactional work coming in next year and and beyond. Now turning to the share price, of course, we all know we have we're living through a major readjustment in the public markets, and that has affected NetScientific in a significant way. The average price has increased last year, but we're very painfully aware that some of you who came in to the investment round last year, and that includes management, have seen a loss on paper. We're, of course, working to realign the value the market cap of the company with the current price, but we just want to flag. We appreciate your support, and we have not forgotten.

16:59 Now turning to the loss. As part of the turnaround strategy and the implementation of our growth strategy, we have made further clever and smart investment in infrastructure resources and team to enable us to drive towards value. In addition, there is the investments in for the product development by glyco test and Proaxis, and that has driven the loss to increase modestly from 2,300,000 to 2,900,000. We believe this is money well spent and money carefully spent and driving to work for value towards the future.

17:33 Now I'm not going to go through all 22 companies. I could. We're extremely passionate about the business. We know all of the teams very well. We're involved at different levels, and we could be here until tomorrow. But I would not I'm not I'm not sure we don't have the time enough for that. So we focus on a few on a few highlights starting with the subsidiaries and our listed company. Proaxis is our respiratory diagnostics subsidiary, a spinout from, Queen's University Belfast. If some of you may recall that in October 2020, we acquired, the balance of ownership for the business. We needed that in order to drive change. Otherwise, we could not do so. We didn't have the tools. Since then, we have transformed the business. We found a small company that was very promising. We have invested in infrastructure, capability of production, professionalizing further the laboratory, building up the staffing.

18:28 As a result, we have, if you will, used the COVID period to build their product pipeline to a much stronger product portfolio of five products, including license from University of Geneva. Some of the the core the core market of clinical trials had slowed down during COVID. So as a result, we have revenue postponed rather than lost. And last but not least, there was the AstraZeneca announcement last year where we acquired where we licensed in the antibody test developed by AstraZeneca. Many of you have been asking questions about progress on this project. John will say a

19:05 bit more about that in the q and a, I'm sure. But what we want to tell you is that since then, we have been implementing a comprehensive and detailed validation process, including the sampling of 1,200 samples of different strands of COVID, the testing against different patients, and we have very strong and positive results. We have been unable to announce those. It is in process, but the results are positive, and this is now opening up commercial options for us.

19:32 PDS Biotech listed on Nasdaq is our immuno oncology company. They started the year with three phase two trials. They now have four, and they have had a very, very strong progress. They have progressed the the phase two trials with with some of the leading companies in the world, the leading organizations, Merck, National Cancer Institute, MD Anderson, Merck Clinic. These are some of the best names that you can have. We have upcoming phase two result presentations in ASCO. ASCO is the leading oncology conference in The US this year in Chicago. And this year, they had not one, but two presentations accepted. As you know, in this space, it is once you have phase two results that there is a big distinction between companies in development and companies now starting to look on the other side of the development cycle.

20:18 Of course, PDS, just like many other companies in this space, has been caught up with the extreme volatility in the biotech markets in The US, including recent volatility the last few days. Now we are very confident in PDS. They have a very strong cash position. They have 58,000,000 in the bank on the back of the fundraise they did last year with Cantor Fitzgerald, and this takes them through to the end of two thousand and twenty four. What's most important for companies in this space is to have the resources to complete the phase two trials. That's where real value gets gets attributed. Finally, glyco test, our liver cancer diagnostics company, has continued progress on their clinical trials, including the multiple sites they work with, which are again some of the leading sites in oncology in The US.

21:05 In addition to that, Fosun Pharma, who is our partner and investor and also one of the world's leading pharma companies, has made two further payments of 500,000 towards the project, and our relationship with them continues to be strong.

21:18 We have had delays in the HCC plan clinical validation, and this is the key value inflection point before we can look at the next stages of development of this company. Those delays have been due to clinical due to technical issues, and now those are being worked through. We expect results in the coming months, but sadly, there have been delays. Now at the beginning of last year, there were only a handful of assets that that accounted for the value of NetScientific. And what we set out, as John mentioned last year, to do is to deepen our involvement, not in all, but in the selected companies where we felt we have the comp we have the confidence, influence, and also scope to get significant returns. Here is here are a few examples. Vertex is a company in which Net Scientific has had involvement in one way or another for a while. You're aware of other companies in The US, in The UK, and The US in this space that have multi £100,000,000 in cap and some of them in the billion pounds space. This is a rapidly developing area of of activity.

22:15 And we have been we implemented a turnaround plan for the business over the last two years. The company is now in a position to grow. We have helped them set up presence in The UK, so they're now duly based West Coast US and Cambridge UK. We've made multiple placements with some of the leading universities in the world and many pharma company many biotech companies. Importantly, post balance sheet, we were able to restructure the business with the collaboration of our partner investors there, whereby Net Scientific now has 30% direct ownership in this business. This is very important for us. Vortex has has is the recipient of $38,000,000 of historical investment. We now have 30% of this business, and the and we we feel there is a lot more positive developments coming here. Is another example. It's a company we started off with an advisory involvement. Now we have a growing equity stake. It's a company struggling the and environmental space capturing anesthetic gases, which have a significant greenhouse gas effect.

23:14 Qbot is an interesting business in the environmental space. It's a it has a robotics as a service, a proven robotized retrofit insulation process, which I believe even some of you have used in in your own homes. Now we have been monitoring the company through our advised stake for many years. I've been on the board of the company since 2014. Last year, we saw that the market is moving in their direction, and they were the right place. We negotiated a very strong and advantageous deal for us, whereas we where we've been able to obtain an 18% stake in the business, and we're now driving change in that company. They doubled roughly doubled sales last year to 2,300,000, and we have a strong pipeline for this and next year in The UK. We are also now helping through our transatlantic capabilities for the company to establish relationships in The US and EU for global growth. Last but not least, Softland Edinburgh University spin out, which is now finding itself in the middle of a very heated space in terms of satellite telecoms we for which they have an absolutely critical technology. Our work and investment last year enabled them to attract 7,300,000 contract with UK Space Agency.

24:20 We have other we have other such examples, but we wanted to give you a bit of a sense of how we work with these companies. We monitor them. We build a relationship with the teams. And when the time is right, we take a deeper stake and position ourselves for significant returns. Now we're also looking at the future of the business. We want this to be a strong, scalable, evergreen platform following our internationalized

24:42 approach. And we've made two further investments this year. First one is in MARKLET CAPITAL, which is a well known early stage venture capital fund in in the Cambridge high-tech cluster. Cambridge is now considered as second only to Silicon Valley and somewhat consider is now a

24:58 arrival of Silicon Valley in some sectors of development. However, it's a very close cluster. It is difficult to get the good deals from the outside. Now we call it with Saranac Partners, a leading UK wealth wealth manager, a plan to help the market capital team spin out the company from Marshall Group. That was executed last year. They have a strong portfolio in total of 50 assets of of which I would say 25 or 30 are quite interesting and strong. But in addition to that, we negotiated the setup of a follow on vehicle of which we have 40% stake that will cherry pick the good deals coming out of the market capital portfolio with the support of the team. Market capital is now fully operational. I'm on the board of the company actively investing in the Cambridge ecosystem and bringing other synergies to to our group, including co investors and and potential companies that we can take to The US.

25:51 Another example is CETRMET, which is a company we acquired last end of last year. Now CETRMET was run previously by a close to us family office. They asked us to help with future management.

26:05 We acquired the company in a very carefully structured deal, which cost us it was paper based, and the cost to us was under £200,000. Our key focus was on risk and cash management. As a result, we now have a strong relationship with the University of Leuven, which is similar to Cambridge in in the European context. It is also a strong European cluster, and, of course, it is close to Brussels. It gives us both access to a strong high-tech cluster and a footprint in the European Union to help other businesses in our portfolio grow grow in Europe. We acquired three very interesting assets of different levels of development and with different levels of stakeholding, And we're now building a development and capital light investment plan, not only about committing our cash, but also looking at the local venture capital ecosystem, funds from from from government and so on.

26:53 And through this, we have obtained a strong footprint in The EU for future growth.

26:58 Now turning to the broader Transatlantic bridges, we have made further progress on something we flagged to you last year. We're now in advanced stages of negotiation for a lease in East Coast US close to the FDA, close to the National Institutes of Health for a growth space where we can locate many of our companies to give them lab space if they want to launch lab developed tests, lab services in The US, logistics for their sales, and, of course, a sales base. We've identified several companies that will take up office space, and we're also looking at the pipeline of other companies that might take up. Now this is important because we're looking at offsetting the costs of this through other companies taking up space, and this will be strategic link into The US market. Furthermore, we're looking to help UK US companies enter The UK in The there's a bit of background noise here from somewhere. Now turning to the way forward, last year so, John, I think it's the paper on your microphone.

27:57 Looking at last year, look. This saw a very strong turnaround and consolidation of the company. It is a different business compared to eighteen months ago. We've shown that we can deliver, and we've shown that the strategy we've proposed can add real value. We have a diversified and balanced portfolio in some of the critical sectors in these volatiles in ESG, in life sciences, in health care, and in key strategic sectors. We are on the inside of many of these growth industries on two continents. This gives us strong access to opportunities.

28:27 We'll continue to focus on growth and the realization of shareholder value. This is what we're about. And I think one thing I want you to take away is that we provide a quite unique combination of access and knowledge of good science and technology with the commercial management capability on our side, but also giving that to the portfolio companies. And last but not least, that crucial deal making capability that means that we can make the smart investments when the time is right. And with that, I hand over to John.

28:56 Thank you, Ilian. And just to summarize everything, hopefully, in one slide, the message we're trying to get across today is that the business is transformed and now on a very exciting growth trajectory. And we're using the same message that we used before. We do believe we've got the right asset base, and now it's strengthened. We do believe it's the right space, and that space is exemplified, I think, by world movements at the Transatlantic

29:24 Bridges being very important and the side growth sectors we're involved in, still the right one. And the timing is right, and we are capitalizing on those opportunities. And we do have that platform now and approach that is proving to deliver. As a result, we have accelerated our progress and as the account show good performance and a stronger balance sheet. So that's combined with the enhanced portfolio, which adds to that potential and our drive for exits and liquidity events. Hopefully, we demonstrate that not just Illy and myself, but management is committed to deliver, and we've got that focus. And the other side of it is that we are well placed because of what we've done, and now we can be flexible. We don't have to do deals. We don't have to do x or y. We can and will monitor events very carefully and respond accordingly.

30:20 So that's given us that extra strength. And an inevitable question for all of us who are shareholders, we still want to align the both today's underlying value, but also what we see as the increasing asset value in our market cap and share price. And to do that, we have got the multiple opportunities to grow and to realize those essential returns. So in in one line, strong results, we're in a great position with excellent prospects. And with that, I'll say thank you very much for listening to us and turn over to the question and answer session. John, Ilium, thank you very much for your presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions using the Q and A tab situated in the top right hand corner of your screen. I just want John and Ilian take a few minutes to review those questions submitted today. I'd like to remind you that recording of this presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published Q and A can be accessed via investor dashboard.

31:18 John, Ilyan, as you can see, we've received a number of questions throughout today's presentation, and thank you to all the investors for submitting those. Could I just ask you to read out those questions and give responses where it's appropriate to do so? And then I'll pick up from you both at the end. John, shall we kick off with the glyco test question at the top? Yeah. Do you wanna take that or drop me to? Well, if you go in now, I'll just So so glyco test, let let's explain a little bit more about the situation with GlycoTest. So GlycoTest was one of the early portfolio companies. And then as the studies developed and the work progressed extremely well, The question here is can we shed can we shed light? And it's from Tarek. I've just lost the question now.

32:08 Could we shed light on glycotest and the option? So going back a little bit on on that one. Explicitly in 2019, an excellent deal was done with Fosun Pharma, I'll explain a little about that, against a valuation of 25,000,000 US dollars with a commitment from Fosun to invest $10,000,000 in stage tranches. And those stage tranches were, again, milestones for the company. The ratio of holdings at that stage was that Net Scientific held in the mid 60% with the glyco test making up the remainder. With there actually only is a very modest amount of options just held by our chief operating officer. So the ownership of the company changes according to Fosun's investments.

33:06 When Fosun have invested the full $10,000,000, then they will drop. Sorry. They will increase, to close to 50%. Net scientific will drop down to just over 50%, and then a couple of percent in the middle held by management under options. So that is the structure. We're going forward on that basis, but Fosom so far have invested seven out of the 10,000,000. So there's still a further $3,000,000 to draw down there, and that ties in with glyco test plans going forward as we continue to deliver against the milestones. I mean, I don't know if you want to add anything to that. I know you keep in close contact with Fosun. But Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, I think what's important to emphasize here is that, like many other companies with clinical trials, they went through the COVID period, and that inevitably wreaked havoc in terms of hospitals were ploising, centers weren't working, and that inevitably led to to certain delays.

34:14 What we did when we came into the business is we immediately focused on the cash. Essentially, we we redrew the business plan of the company to focus on cash preservation, until clinical trials could restart. As a result, GlycoTest has been able to get to this point without needing an additional external fundraise, which many other companies in in this industry have have done. So this is being done on a very cost effective way. And the second aspect is that the Fortune Pharma collaboration is extremely positive. Their interest, of course, is that they're they're focused on China, but it does give us access to various other resources, not least access to potential co investors if and when the company goes to market for for a scale up.

35:05 So it's quite an interesting and positive set of opportunities there. K. Maybe the next question we focus is from Michael, which is I'll publish I'll publish it, which I I think if I publish, the rest of the group can see, asking about value inflection points, exits, liquidity, and events, and how do we see this progressing, and what would we do with the proceeds. The way we look at this is many fold. I think we we move away a little bit from the classic VC approach, which is, well, you know, you have a portfolio of 20, and most of them will fail, and two or three will have a a stronger exit. Those will pay back the funds, and the rest goodbye. Our approach is more of a business person approach where we are focused on our entire portfolio and to look at each company in its own turn.

35:58 And when we again, when we started the turnaround, we evaluated the portfolio, and we do that regularly, and looked at first of all, looked at the companies, look what does it mean from a capital needs perspective? What does it mean from your valuation perspective to identify the point the the the key points at which an exit or a partial liquidity event can be done? So we have this atlas for most of the companies that we are targeting. Now that's the not the theory, but that's the analysis. Now when it comes to actually doing it, we are working with these companies on very specific projects in terms of them being prepared for an exit or for a trade sale or for an IPO, building up their corporate governance infrastructure, their financial controls, helping them identify the right focus levels on on commercialization, move moving back many of them from the interesting r and d project that always excite startups and focusing them on making money, moving towards profitability.

36:50 But having said that, there's other aspects. We are in the market all the time talking to corporate m and a and corporate VC teams. Why? Because we co invest with them on a syndicate basis. So we have direct access to the market to understand what the temperature is. And, of course, us being a public company here and having access to the public markets in The US, we also talk to the brokers and investment banks again to understand the readiness and potential routes for the companies we we we work with. Last but not least, it's not just about trade sales and IPOs. There are other ways of getting liquidity. We are able to acquire shares and sell those. We're able to acquire shares in the secondary and make a make make profit on those. We also work with the companies to identify potential carve outs where we identify a spin out from the business and take early liquidity.

37:36 So we have many tools at our disposal. And as we go forward, you know, we are looking to exploit exploit all of those. John, do you want to add something to this? I think you also missed the the last line, which I think you left for me. What are we gonna do with the proceeds? So I think just to reaffirm what Ilian said, we are very much focused on it, but probably our emphasis in truth is more on liquidity events and managing to those milestones so that if we take a company which may, for example, want to target a successful IPO, it doesn't necessarily mean that Net Scientific would want to exit at that point. So what we may want to do is take some of the profit and stay for the ride on some of the companies. So we we keep that flexibility of approach. When I take take some of the money, as I said a moment or two ago, we're looking for those companies in our selected group that can deliver the 5 to £10,000,000 plus.

38:35 Now if it's a modest liquidity event of 1,000,000 or 2, then it's more likely that's gonna be retained within the company to grow the company. Once we start hitting the double digit returns, clearly, expectation is that shareholders get their rewards and at that stage look at a level of dividend appropriate to that liquidity or exit event. So it will be a graded scale, but we're very conscious that shareholders are looking to realize their returns, which they can obviously do by selling the shares, but we'd rather shareholders stay with us and we're able to provide some dividend distributions on on major events. And in some ways, that ties neatly into James' two part question.

39:24 The first is you keep telling us how undervalued the shares are, and I assume the entire board will be buying shares in the market post results. And I am gonna read the second part of the question, because it ties in very much to an example of the situation. Now we have excellent test results for the AstraZeneca antibody test. Can you expand on the market size of this product and how soon it will be on the market? Well, I asked my, CFO this morning, was I now and the board cleared to buy shares? Unfortunately, the answer because I would have taken the opportunity seeing the drop to buy some shares and indeed have been frustrated that couldn't buy a few more to average down on the, the shares I bought last year at £1.30.

40:17 But the the reality from our CFO was no because we have some information. And one of the pieces of information that we have is in relation to AstraZeneca. Ilian has explained the progress made. And I think last time when we were presenting, we were talking about the first phase of those results coming through well. As I said at the time, AstraZeneca didn't hand us their antibody test on a plate and say there it it is completed. The first thing we had to do was was to validate that test, and that was the first stage we went through. Secondly, we needed to turn it into a practical commercial lab test so that we can actually go forward with it. And a range of improvements and development, the team at Proaxis have been able to do in that regard.

41:09 So using standard equipment, making it a more cost effective test, cutting down the the time involved. And so we did all our work internally. And one of the challenges is when you're doing a test like this, you have to have consistency over a thirty day period. So it's a very repetitive process to prove absolute consistency in that test. Hence, there's a cycle and a timetable to get it market ready. Once we've done that, we then hand it over to an independent third party to validate. In this case, led by an expert in the field, professor Tara Moore, who, as Ilyan said, had 1,200 samples with two batches essentially in the first sense of 400 cases and 400 controlled, each of those then being broken down into different demographics, and those demographics also identifying or seeking to identify the different strains of COVID.

42:14 As a result of that, and why we've so far only put the sort of excellent against that, is we've been waiting for the final confirmation, of the results. So whilst we we know them, we're waiting for the confirmation, and also from AstraZeneca who are delighted with the results we produced so that we can then issue the the full announcement. And that is imminent. So we are disappointed that we haven't already had that announcement. It's when you're dealing with AstraZeneca, they're our larger organization. It takes a little bit longer to clear, but we expect that within the next couple of working days. So in terms of giving you a timeline on that, it it's the next few days for that announcement.

43:03 The part of the process then of getting it to market, it is a highly specific and sensitive test. We are very impressed. I think the words that will be used, extremely impressive results. And as a result of that, well suited to the target market initially, which is research and clinical trials. Clinical trials being a core part of our market today and run into each stage, running to hundreds of thousands of pounds and not more. So that is the target market, which we do believe, given that COVID is maybe out of the headlines in terms of testing and relax restrictions, the reality we have to learn to live with COVID.

43:49 And for those people who are in the vulnerable and those in the older population, knowing, their antibodies will be a very useful tool, and this will be able to discriminate, the results. So the next stage is the CE marking, which we believe should be completed within a matter of two to three weeks. It's a registration process, and we are set for that. And then the launch will be two in the research field, which will be available globally, very similar to our NeatStick. So it'll be a a pack of test kits that people will have. Those kits will be available and then to be used in the clinical trials. The frustration, I think, in those two markets is that whilst the markets are big with several 100 clinical trials taking place, they have quite long lead times. So we're looking at revenue growing in the second half of the year rather than in instant sales hit.

44:51 And at this stage, we are not addressing I say at this stage with a word of caution that there is no sort of immediate plan to try and enter the fray of the active individual market. So sorry if that's a long winded answer, but I hope it answers the question. Our next answer to, I would I would call infrastructure questions by Tarek and Steven. The first one is from Tarek. Since you're working closely with portfolio companies, can you please provide more regular updates on progress of these companies? The first thing I want to flag is that while we don't contribute to the chat lines, we we we monitor closely feedback we get through all channels, and and we appreciate the feedback and and welcome it.

45:40 Our our PR company put some limits on on what and how much we we do online. But to be specific, in terms of we've had questions in the past about what's RNS, what's not RNS. Well, there's a highly technical set of criteria between what's an RNS, RNS rich, and non RNS. But what we're working towards is because we have a rich portfolio of companies is to provide more frequent updates on what the companies themselves are doing. I encourage you to follow the LinkedIn profile of NetScientific and also of EMV CAPITAL because that's where we provide more frequent updates on what the companies are are doing. You appreciate with 22 companies, you know, their constant press releases and updates, and we have to be careful which ones we publish, which ones not, and what that means. But we're looking to improve, and any any suggestions are welcome.

46:32 The next question is from Steven P. It will be helpful to receive asset data on a per share basis because that's what shareholders have, especially given the capital raising. Have fair value net asset value moved up or down next year sorry, over the year. Once again, we are looking to continue to improve the sort of KPIs and metrics we we we report on. To address your question, the current net NAV per share is 88 p, or rather the NAV for last year is 88 p. That for 2020 was 46 p. So NAV per share has almost doubled over that period, and we'll look to find ways to publish that in the future. And I'll move on to another question that's more broad by Tarek.

47:18 Interrupt and just to add a bit to that. In terms of the the presentation today, I appreciate that people are having to listen and absorb at the same time. But as Ilian illustrated in the the highlights on the slide there, we've got a fair value of our portfolio at over 30,000,000. That fair value is based on the latest data. So in some cases, that will be historic cost. In other case, it'll be the price that money's being raised. Or in the case of PDS, it's the current share price. So if you take that 30,000,000 plus valuation and you look at that in terms of fair market value, that's much more around the $1.46 pence per share. So in the value that is historically driven, that would give you a value of about 146 per share.

48:17 And then if you look at that in context, given those are historic valuations, as we look forward, hence, seeing that value growing. But until we've got an external benchmark to validate that, we can't actually claim the value for it. So beyond that, it's down much more to how the analysts look at it and their publish their views, which have been consistently higher. Sorry, Aileen. Just No. No. It's fine. You raise a very important point. So, actually, I'll supplement what you just said. I'll give you two examples, Proaxis and Vertex. Proaxis is on our books at, I believe, 3,700,000. Why 3,700,000? Because that's the price at which we acquired the minority founder shareholders in October 20.

49:08 If Paraxis was on the on the markets raising money, it would quite likely raise funding at a significantly higher valuation. But on our books, it is valued on the historical. So when we talk about crystallizing value, for instance, in the future Paraxis raising a bit of cash at a market related value, that would automatically translate to balance sheet addition to us and, of course, good developments for Proaxis. Similarly with Vortex, which the transaction was done at £1,000,000, 30% at £1,000,000 valuation. But once again, as the company develops and goes to market for further funding, it is quite likely that the valuation will be an altogether different level. So there is a lot, and this goes towards the next question by Tarek about portfolio companies that can add significant value to the business. There is, I would say, a few obvious ones as you look through the appendices I was going through where where you can see companies that have not yet gone on on on the markets that we are developing and incubating and will be going. So those will naturally add value to the balance sheet. So that's one aspect. That's one way in which we crystallize value.

50:18 And and the other aspect is, of course, the the the the further developments by these businesses as they as they crack through the through the milestones. So I wouldn't want to pick any one of those, but I would say, you know, we are focused on a set of companies which we've explained, and each of those has their own plans that is likely to add value to the business. And I think I'm not going to necessarily pick and say these are the winners, but I will just follow on what Ilian said and how that valuation can move. We've taken a strategic approach. And as I was saying earlier, what we've done through the capital under advisory, as we've got to know the companies better, you'll have seen a move from not just a capital advisory, but NetScientific taking a direct stake, and therefore building both from a direct investment and increased capital under advisory.

51:13 But we don't always take that direct stake from the latest issue. If we take SageTech, there there was a a block to some degree in the system. We helped unblock that system. And as part of that, we bought secondary shares from the founder, which helped the founder and helped the company, but also we were able to buy those secondary shares at a discount to a historic price. So we're able to take that and that in its turn as the value of SageTech continues to grow, as the product is marketed and launched, then that value you will see flowing through in the future. The next line will be at the half year. And likewise, in one of his favorites where he's already referenced is Qbot, where again, taking helping the company clear the route and the way forward, able again to buy secondary shares at a substantial discount and already being able to identify a 1,000,000 gain and future gains will flow through. So that's how we're looking at the business. So it's when we talk about judicious, it's a very well thought through process, and we will continue to adopt that approach.

52:36 John, Ilium, thank you for that. I think I actually managed to address all those questions from investors. And, of course, the company will review all the questions submitted today and will publish their responses on the investor meet company platform. But just before redirecting, investors provide you with their feedback, which is important to the company. John, Ilian, can I just ask you for a few closing comments? Sure. Well, maybe I'll go first, and John, supplement. I guess I've got the easy one because my summary is still up there. And I think it is a transformed business with that exciting growth trajectory. You know, the the results are strong. We expect that to continue. We're not sitting here lacking confidence. We have got that confidence it will continue. And echoing the comment about the value, I think it was good value previously, our shares. I think whilst the market has hit the share price, it's an extremely good value investment. But I'm not giving investment advice.

53:33 I'm merely giving you a personal view in that regard. But on that light to note, Ilian. And I think just as a broader point, are all, of course, look seeing the the extreme volatility in the public markets that comes from the back of what happened in the last three years, which was an upswing in the markets. From inside, when we look at our business, how we run our business, all we see is opportunity. Opportunities, we have to be careful about how we pursue. But in terms of the sectors we are in, in terms of the networks we are in, in terms of the corporate and university links that we have, as well as public sector links in The UK, in The US, in Europe, in Israel, we see an enormous amount of opportunities. The reason the public markets are volatile is because they reflect the volatility that's happening in the real world, in energy markets, in the health care industry, in in the global political environment, and in how the the trade system is being transformed and how supply chains are being unwound and and redomiciled.

54:36 And we are in the middle of that. So from our perspective, the next three years are, professionally speaking, the most exciting years in my life. You know? Scary in some ways in terms of the obvious political environment, But in terms of what is happening and how our portfolio companies are positioned to to benefit from this change, this is when small companies make it big. This is when big corporates need a solution now, and they identify companies such as the ones that we have to provide that that solution. So from our side, we are fully dedicated to to participate and to engage with this environment, of course, in a very a very careful manner. In the meantime, we have to navigate the public markets to the best of our abilities. So John, Ilian, thanks once again for updating investors today. Can I please ask investors not to close this 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?

55:33 This will only take a few moments to complete, and I'm sure it'll be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of Net Scientific PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good afternoon to you all.