RNS & Investor News

Half Year Report

28 September 2022

OptiBiotix Health plc (AIM: OPTI), a life sciences business developing compounds to tackle obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and skincare, announces its results for the six months ended 30 June 2022.

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Highlights

  • Successful admission of ProBiotix Health plc on the AQSE Growth Market on 31 March 2022, providing OptiBiotix shareholders with a dividend in specie of over £10.2m
  • Substantial strengthening of the senior commercial management team to drive future business growth
  • Lower than expected first half revenues caused by delays in restocking by certain large partners and in securing regulatory approval for some planned product launches
  • Improved sales performance post period with product launches by Apollo Pharmacies in India and restocking by some partners with sales normalising but insufficient to make up the H1 deficit 
  • A substantial increase in the value of the Group’s holding resulting in a Group net profit for the period of £13.9m (2021: £14.2m)
  • A healthy balance sheet with gross assets of £22.4m
  • Entry into sports nutrition market with The Hut Group with the launch of LeanBiome®
  • Launch of reformulated WellBiome® functional fibre and mineral blend to support healthy ageing
  • Publication of a peer-reviewed scientific study of one of our second-generation SweetBiotix® products, confirming its suitability as a healthy replacement for sugar
  • Conclusion of a joint development agreement with Firmenich, the world’s largest privately owned taste and fragrance company, to develop new products containing SweetBiotix®
  • Significant scientific and commercial progress in the development of second-generation microbiome modulators
  • Good progress in the development of OptiBiotix Health India

Post Period

  • The launch of the GoFigure® product range in India with Apollo Pharmacies
  • An agreement with Nutraconnect to help accelerate the commercialisation of products in the Asia Pacific (“APAC”) Region.
  • An exclusive distribution agreement with Longlive to distribute xylooligosaccharide (“XOS”) prebiotic into the human nutrition markets (foods & beverages and supplements) in Europe and Africa as OptiXOS  

Stephen O’Hara, CEO of OptiBiotix, commented: Since the beginning of 2022 we have invested in the strengthening of our senior management team and focused on expanding our portfolio of larger business partners and increasing sales of our finished products direct to consumers, so building a more robust business for the future. We expect to see a return on this investment in the second half and beyond. 

“As part of this process we are expanding our first-generation family of functional ingredients into new channels with the launch of LeanBiome® and WellBiome® and are making good progress commercialising our second-generation SweetBiotix® products. We are also making significant scientific and commercial progress in the development of our prebiotic microbiome modulators, which give us access to one of the most exciting areas of opportunity in the microbiome space.

“In line with our strategy of delivering multiple opportunities to investors, we retain significant exposure to the considerable growth potential in probiotics and skincare through the Group’s shareholdings in ProBiotix Health plc and SkinBiotherapeutics plc.

“We are confident that our strategy will deliver an improved sales performance in the second half of the year, and even more strongly in 2023, and look forward to demonstrating the long-term growth potential of the Group.”

This announcement contains information which, prior to its disclosure, was considered inside information for the purposes of the UK Market Abuse Regulation and the Directors of the Company are responsible for the release of this announcement.

 

For further information, please contact:

OptiBiotix Health plc www.optibiotix.com
Neil Davidson, Chairman Contact via Walbrook below
Stephen O'Hara, Chief Executive  
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (NOMAD) Tel: 020 7213 0880
Liam Murray / Jo Turner / Ludovico Lazzaretti  
 
Cenkos Securities plc (Broker) Tel: 020 7397 8900
Callum Davidson  
Michael Johnson / Russell Kerr (Sales)  
 
Walbrook PR Ltd Mob: 07876 741 001
Anna Dunphy