TIDMBQE

RNS Number : 3767X

Bioquell PLC

19 November 2014

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

19 November, 2014

Bioquell PLC

Interim Management Statement

Bioquell PLC ("Bioquell") (LSE symbol: BQE) - provider of specialist bio-contamination control technologies to the international Healthcare, Life Sciences & Defence markets; and specialist testing services via its TRaC division, today announces its Interim Management Statement for the period from 1 July, 2014 to 18 November, 2014.

Financial position and financial performance of the Company

Group revenues in the ten month period to the end of October 2014 were approximately 3% behind the same period for last year, in line with the trading described in the Group's interim results published in August.

The Group has a strong balance sheet with positive net cash balances at the end of October.

Ebola

The recent outbreak of Ebola in West Africa has created significant interest in the Bio division's equipment and services - and a modest increase in revenues for such products. Bioquell's hydrogen peroxide vapour ("HPV") technology has been used to decontaminate Ebola patient rooms in three hospitals in the USA as well as in hospitals in the UK, France and Holland. Moreover, we have been talking to hospitals in Europe and the USA about helping them with Ebola emergency preparedness and, via our Pod technology, isolation surge capacity.

At the current time, the number of patients being treated for Ebola in the USA and Europe has decreased, and our Ebola-related activity levels are currently reducing. However, based on our experience of this outbreak to date, it appears likely that should an increased number of Ebola patients be admitted to hospitals in the developed world - and, in particular, if there are further cases of healthcare workers contracting the Ebola virus from infected patients - then our activity levels would increase once more.

Our Ebola-related work has heightened awareness of the Group's capabilities. Given the number of hospitals in Europe and the US who have used our technology it has helped establish our position as the "go to" suppliers of sophisticated bio-decontamination technology, when a customer wants to be confident that there are no viable micro-organisms left after the disinfection process. In addition, we now have a substantially broader range of prospective customers in the US and Europe who we believe will contact us in the event that they have a microbiological contamination problem, including issues associated with antibiotic resistant bacteria. Bioquell's strategic interest remains to work with hospitals to help them alleviate the clinical and financial challenges posed by antibiotic resistant bacteria, although we are happy to help hospitals combat the immediate threat posed by Ebola.

Other healthcare

We deployed twenty Pods, in conjunction with four suites of HPV equipment, in a Saudi Arabian intensive care unit in advance of the annual Hajj pilgrimage at Mecca. This was our first substantial Pod deployment outside the UK. We anticipate that this reference site will help us generate further Pod and HPV bio-decontamination revenues from the Middle East.

Life Sciences

We are seeing increasing orders for QUBEs from overseas and our RBDS service business is performing steadily. Our short term challenge remains HPV equipment orders for our older products.

We have completed the restructuring of our Asian and US businesses referred to in our interim report. The annualised cost savings of GBP1.4m anticipated at the time of our interim report are still expected to be achieved in 2015. Initial signs from these changes are encouraging.

Defence

Our standard product CBRN defence business continues to grow. We are seeing encouraging enquiries from prospective customers in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. A substantial proportion of our order book for defence products for next year is now in place.

TRaC

TRaC - the Group's Testing, Regulatory and Compliance division - continues to trade well with a good performance seen so far in the second half of the year.

TRaC is making steady progress on extending the range and scope of its services, beyond its core EMC and environmental testing.

Prospects and Outlook

Trading for the Bio division in the third quarter was in line with the Board's expectations. As in previous years, we anticipate receiving substantial equipment orders, particularly from customers in the Life Sciences sector, in the final quarter and we intend to fulfil a significant proportion of these orders before the year end.

TRaC has a strong order book for the remainder of the financial year and is expected to continue to perform well.

A pre-close trading update will be issued in mid January.

- Ends -

Enquiries

   Nigel Keen (Chairman)               Bioquell PLC                    01264 835 900 

Nick Adams (Chief Executive)

Michael Roller (Finance Director)

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Notes to Editors

-- Bioquell is a UK-headquartered, international technology company with two divisions:

o Bio (www.bioquell.com) which sells specialist biological contamination control products and services into the Healthcare, Life Sciences and Defence sectors, with most of its revenues generated from overseas customers; and

o TRaC (www.tracglobal.com) which provides specialist Testing, Regulatory and Compliance services - including EMC (electromagnetic compatibility), environmental, safety, ATEX (explosive atmospheres) radio and telecoms testing - principally to UK corporates.

-- Bioquell's bio-contamination control technology is principally based around hydrogen peroxide vapour (HPV) - which is highly efficacious at eradicating micro-organisms such as bacteria and viruses at room temperature - and is subsequently broken down using specialist catalysts to water vapour and oxygen (hence an extremely 'green' technology) at the end of the bio-decontamination process.

-- For the last three years Bioquell has invested substantial sums in developing new products - comprising rental, service and consumables - which have been designed to increase the proportion of the Group's recurring revenues (cf. capital equipment sales).

-- Bioquell's bio-contamination control technology:

o is used by bio-pharmaceutical, biotechnology and research institutions to provide sterile equipment and/or sterile facilities;

o is used to eradicate "superbugs" from hospitals including Clostridium difficile and carbapenemase producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) - sometimes referred to as carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE). Independent scientific research from a team at Johns Hopkins, one of America's top hospitals, has demonstrated that 'bioquelling' hospital equipment and facilities resulted in a 64% reduction in the rate of hospital acquired infection;

o is used to provide single rooms to hospitals (via its ICE-pod rental service) which currently only have open, multi-bed "Nightingale" ward structures

o has been incorporated in a wound-care product - BioxyQuell - which has received regulatory approval for use on chronic wounds in the European Union; and

-- Bioquell currently has overseas operations in the USA, France, Ireland, Singapore and China.

TRaC sells its specialist services to the product development departments of a broad range of companies, principally based in the UK, with a particular focus on organisations operating in the aerospace, defence and telecoms sectors. TRaC also has a small team of technical experts located in China.

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

END

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