TIDMCRON
RNS Number : 1380J
Cronin Group PLC
28 March 2018
28 March 2018
Cronin Group Plc
("Cronin" or the "Company")
Final results for the year ended 31 December 2017
Cronin Group Plc announces its audited financial results for the
year ended 31 December 2017.
Highlights:
-- Loss of GBP1.46 million after tax (2016: loss GBP0.71 million)
-- Cash and short term deposits at 31 December 2017 of GBP3.26 million (2016: GBP4.79 million)
-- Net assets at 31 December 2017 of GBP8.11 million (2016: GBP8.92 million)
-- The Group has grown to 20 full time employees (excluding
directors) and further intensified development of its
DigitalGlassware(TM) technology platform
-- Acquisition of OpenIOLabs Limited will accelerate deployment of DigitalGlassware(TM)
-- Laurence Ede and David Cleevely joined the Board as a non-executive directors
-- Post year end industry engagements with two international
businesses to join the Company's Pioneer Programme, evaluating
DigitalGlassware(TM)
-- Proposed change of name to DeepMatter Group Plc
Mark Warne, Chairman of Cronin, said:
"The last year has seen the Group make exciting progress towards
deploying its DigitalGlassware(TM) technology platform, comprising
an easy-to-use software interface and a unique, low footprint
sensor array, which will allow an individual to access reproducible
chemistry via internet protocols.
The Group has identified a number of leading companies and
institutions involved in the field of chemistry, to participate in
its Pioneer Programme. Moving forward, we keenly anticipate beta
stage deployment with these key innovators and early adopters, in
preparation for addressing broader adoption among the target user
groups, building credibility, awareness and understanding of the
DigitalGlassware(TM) platform."
Contacts:
Cronin Group Plc www.croningroupplc.com
Mark Warne, Chairman T: 0141 465 6871
Stockdale Securities Limited T: 020 7601 6100
Tom Griffiths / Edward Thomas
CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT
Introduction
I am pleased to present the Chairman's statement for Cronin
Group Plc (the "Company") and its subsidiaries (the "Group") for
the financial year to 31 December 2017. Big Data will enhance
productivity in all areas of chemistry, a multi-billion-dollar
market and discipline that impacts nearly all elements of human
life. The last year has seen the Group make exciting progress
towards deploying its DigitalGlassware(TM) technology platform. The
platform will increase access to, and the quality of, data
associated with making a chemical. The resulting data insights
subjected to Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
methodologies will allow chemicals to be discovered, made and
remade more productively. Ultimately, the Group envisages a
capability for autonomous digital synthesis.
Advancing Technical Capability
During the year, the Group completed a first laboratory-based
deployment of its DigitalGlassware(TM) platform, comprising an
easy-to-use software interface and a unique, low footprint sensor
array, which will allow an individual to access reproducible
chemistry via internet protocols. The deployment of the
DigitalGlassware(TM) platform was accelerated during the period
following the Group's decision to secure access to an established
and synergistic Internet of Lab Things (IoLT) hardware capability.
The Group acquired OpenIOlabs Limited ("OIOL"), a company based in
Cambridge, with assets for integrating equipment in a laboratory, a
capability the Group had always intended to include in its
DigitalGlassware platform. Currently, the integration of OIOL into
the Group is well under way, with measures to deploy the
prioritised assets and realise cost synergies initiated.
As of the date of this report, the Group now employs 20
personnel, including chemistry specialists, software and hardware
engineers with operations in Cambridge and Glasgow. The Group
continues its research relationship with the team at Glasgow
University, which is led by Cronin Group's scientific founder,
Professor Lee Cronin.
First Industry Engagements
The Group believes only high fidelity data will truly enable
making better chemical molecules, faster and more effectively. It
has been stated that a large gap currently exists in chemical data
reporting standards, rendering much of the currently available data
unusable by algorithmic analyses. It has been widely reported that
researchers think that science faces a reproducibility crisis, with
around half not having faith in the published literature in their
field - chemists often reporting the most difficulty.
DigitalGlassware(TM) overcomes challenges in chemical data
reporting standards, enabling access to this chemistry data in
real-time to a broad community of users, including industrial and
academic chemists, students, scientists from non-chemistry
disciplines, scientific publishers and funding and professional
advocacy bodies.
Since the year end, the Group has entered into memoranda of
understanding with two leading international life science reagent
and chemicals manufacturers to join the Company's Pioneer
Programme, evaluating DigitalGlassware(TM). One is a US
headquartered business, with laboratory operations worldwide and
the other, a UK based subsidiary of a NASDAQ listed company. The
purpose of the Programme is to beta trial the Group's technology
with the full range of target users, allowing the Group to observe
its performance in different operating environments and locations
worldwide. These observations will contribute towards technical and
commercial optimisation, prior to wider dissemination to target
users. The Pioneer companies will also assess the performance of
the DigitalGlassware(TM) platform, specifically to understand how
it can help improve the outcomes of chemical processes, including
precision and reproducibility, with a view to how the platform can
help in discovering/enabling new and improved chemistry.
Financial Review
The Group incurred an operating loss for the year ended 31
December 2017 of GBP1.58 million (2016: loss of GBP0.82 million)
which resulted in an overall after tax loss for the year of GBP1.46
million compared to an overall loss of GBP0.71 million in the
previous year.
The Group continues to benefit from a sound balance sheet with
cash balances at 31 December 2017 of GBP3.27 million compared to
GBP4.79 million at 31 December 2016. The GBP1.52 million decrease
in cash during the year is mainly attributable to the research and
development and overhead expenditure costs associated with the
continuing operations of the Group for the financial year.
Board Changes
The Group strengthened its Executive management in April 2017
when I took on the role of Executive Chairman and Michael
Bretherton was appointed as Finance Director. At that time, the
Company was also pleased to announce the appointment of Laurence
Ede as independent non-executive director. Laurence, who had been
serving the Company in an advisory capacity since April 2016,
brings specific experience of the chemicals industry. He was the
Managing Director and co-owner of Tocris Bioscience, a company
producing chemical compounds for pharmaceutical research, when it
was sold to Techne Corporation for GBP75 million in 2011. In
addition, as part of the acquisition of OIOL in November 2017, the
Group was delighted that David Cleevely CBE, a serial entrepreneur
and notably co-founder of Abcam PLC and chairman of the Raspberry
Pi Foundation, agreed to join the Board as a new non-executive
director.
Proposed change of name
It is proposed that, to better represent the mission and values
of the Company, its name be changed to "DeepMatter Group Plc", as
set out in resolution 7 of the attached Notice of Annual General
Meeting to be held on 16 May 2018.
Outlook
Our DigitalGlassware(TM) platform provides a new language for
digital chemistry, championing speed, simplicity and unhindered
discovery. This brings code, structure and order into the chemistry
lab environment and enables recordable, shareable, reproduceable
chemistry.
The Group has identified a number of leading companies and
institutions involved in the field of chemistry, to participate in
its Pioneer Programme. Moving forward, we keenly anticipate beta
stage deployment with these key innovators and early adopters, in
preparation for addressing broader adoption among the target user
groups, building credibility, awareness and understanding of the
DigitalGlassware(TM) platform.
Mark Warne
Executive Chairman
28 March 2018
Company Number: 05845469
Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income
For the year ended 31 December 2017
Year to 31 December 2017 Year to 31 December 2016
GBP'000 GBP'000
----------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- -------------------------
Continuing operations
Revenue - -
----------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- -------------------------
Research and development costs (1,224) (640)
Share based payments (1) -
Administrative costs (356) (176)
----------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- -------------------------
Operating loss (1,581) (816)
Finance income 22 27
----------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- -------------------------
Loss before tax (1,559) (789)
Income tax credit 137 75
----------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- -------------------------
Loss from continuing operations (1,422) (714)
Discontinued operations
Loss from discontinued operations (42) -
----------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- -------------------------
Loss and total comprehensive loss for the year (1,464) (714)
Loss and total comprehensive loss for the year attributable to:
The Company's equity shareholders (1,464) (714)
Loss per share attributable to the equity holders of the Company:
Basic and diluted loss per share (pence) on continuing
operations (0.27) (0.14)
----------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- -------------------------
Basic and diluted loss per share (pence) on total
operations (0.28) (0.14)
----------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- -------------------------
Consolidated Statement of Financial Position
As at 31 December 2017
At 31 December 2017 At 31 December 2016
GBP'000 GBP'000
---------------------------------------------------------- -------------------- --------------------
Assets
Non-current assets
Intangible assets and goodwill 4,958 4,216
Investments 3 3
Plant and equipment 31 15
4,992 4,234
---------------------------------------------------------- -------------------- --------------------
Current assets
Inventories 10 -
Trade and other receivables 127 30
Cash and cash equivalents 3,265 4,789
3,402 4,819
---------------------------------------------------------- -------------------- --------------------
Liabilities
Current liabilities
Trade and other payables (281) (137)
----------------------------------------------------------- -------------------- --------------------
Net current assets 3,121 4,682
Net assets 8,113 8,916
----------------------------------------------------------- -------------------- --------------------
Equity and liabilities
Shareholder's equity
Called up share capital 55 53
Share premium 3,287 3,287
Merger reserve 5,334 4,880
Shares to be issued reserve 204 -
Share based payments reserve 1 -
Retained (deficit) / earnings (768) 696
----------------------------------------------------------- -------------------- --------------------
Total equity attributable to shareholders of the Company 8,113 8,916
----------------------------------------------------------- -------------------- --------------------
Consolidated Statement of Changes in Equity
For the year ended 31 December 2017
Share based Shares to
Share Merger Retained payment be issued
Share equity premium reserve earnings reserve reserve Total equity
GBP'000 GBP'000 GBP'000 GBP'000 GBP'000 GBP'000 GBP'000
---------------- ------------- ------------- ------------- ------------ ------------ ------------ -------------
Balance at 31
December 2015 53 3,287 4,880 1,410 - - 9,630
---------------- ------------- ------------- ------------- ------------ ------------ ------------ -------------
Total
comprehensive
loss for the
year to 31
December 2016 - - - (714) - - (714)
Balance at 31
December 2016 53 3,287 4,880 696 - - 8,916
---------------- ------------- ------------- ------------- ------------ ------------ ------------ -------------
Total
comprehensive
loss for the
year to 31
December 2017 - - - (1,464) - - (1,464)
Transactions
with owners:
Shares issued
and issuable
on acquisition
of subsidiary 2 - 454 - - 204 660
Share based
payment charge - - - - 1 - 1
Balance at 31
December 2017 55 3,287 5,334 (768) 1 204 8,113
---------------- ------------- ------------- ------------- ------------ ------------ ------------ -------------
Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows
For the year ended 31 December 2017
Year to 31 December 2017 Year to 31 December 2016
GBP'000 GBP'000
------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- -------------------------
Cash flows from operating activities
Operating loss from continuing operations (1,581) (816)
Loss from discontinued operations (42) -
Depreciation and amortisation charges 14 6
Share based payments charge 1 -
------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------- -------------------------
Operating cash outflows before movement in working capital (1,608) (810)
Increase in inventories (1) -
(Increase) / decrease in trade and other receivables (80) 5
Increase in trade and other payables 27 84
------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- -------------------------
Cash used in operations (1,660) (721)
Interest received 22 27
Taxation received 137 75
------------------------- -------------------------
Net cash used in operating activities (1,503) (619)
------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- -------------------------
Cash flows from investing activities
Purchases of property, plant and equipment (24) (16)
Cash and bank in subsidiary at acquisition 3 -
Net cash used in investing activities (21) (16)
------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- -------------------------
Net decrease in cash and cash equivalents (1,524) (635)
Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year 4,789 5,424
------------------------- -------------------------
Cash and cash equivalents at end of year 3,265 4,789
------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- -------------------------
Notes
A full copy of the Company's 2017 Annual Report is now available
on the Company's website at www.croningroupplc.com under the
Investor Relations/Annual & Interim Reports section and will
shortly be posted to shareholders. This contains on page 39, a
Notice of the Annual General Meeting, to be held in The Auditorium,
The Walbrook Building, 25 Walbrook, London EC4N 8AH on 16 May 2018
at 11.00 am.
The Board of Directors approved this announcement on 27 March
2017. Whilst the financial information included in this preliminary
announcement has been prepared in accordance with International
Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS") as endorsed by the European
Union, this announcement does not itself contain sufficient
information to comply with all the disclosure requirements of IFRS
and does not constitute statutory accounts of the Company for the
years ended 31 December 2017 or 31 December 2016.
The financial information has been extracted from the statutory
accounts of the Company for the years ended 31 December 2017 and 31
December 2016. The auditor, Nexia Smith & Williamson, has
reported on the statutory accounts for the years ended 31 December
2017 and 2016; the reports were unqualified and did not contain a
statement under either section 498(2) or 498(3) of the Companies
Act 2006. In their report on the statutory accounts for the year
ended 31 December 2017, the auditor drew attention to the
disclosures concerning the valuation of goodwill, intangible asset
platform and investment in the subsidiaries. In their report on the
statutory accounts for the year ended 31 December 2016 the auditor
drew attention to the valuation of goodwill and investment in
subsidiary.
The statutory accounts for the year ended 31 December 2016 have
been delivered to the Registrar of Companies, and those for the
year ended 31 December 2017 will be delivered to the Registrar of
Companies following the Company's Annual General Meeting.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
FR EDLFLVXFXBBV
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