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Thank you Souville.
Placing of c. £31 million followed by open offer :-
The Company is pleased to announce that, further to the announcement made on 12 August 2021 (RNS No: 5145I ) regarding the Fundraising (the "Launch Announcement"), it is proposing to raise up to approximately £5.07 million (before expenses) through an Open Offer pursuant to which Qualifying Shareholders will have an opportunity to subscribe for an aggregate of 2,775,896 Open Offer Shares at an Offer Price of 182.5 pence per Open Offer Share.
There were raises at 75p and 125p as I recall, do not remember one at 180p.
Yes there was a raise at 20p putting the market cap at around £60m, following a steady decline from a high of around 230p. Main reasons for the decline were failure to get any traction with core sales of devices, not helped by Covid, a blow out with costs including an extraordinary increase in headcount to 350. In March the company pledged to reduce this to 250, something they said they could do because r & d had peaked. Other poor decisions included appointing a new director who promptly joined the remuneration committee which then awarded key directors massive bonuses. Imo a very poor decision. Since the March raise there are signs of a revival, early traction with sales, new fda approvals, a lot of hope of a deal with one or more of the robotic surgery leaders. I am guessing that the recent uplift in sp is on the back of some positive news in the arena but this not confirmed. Would be very interested if anyone has details of current headcount, even better details of cost reductions. I remain confident that the company will prevail because the technology remains cutting edge however I think there is a call for a management refresh. Back to basics, cut costs, narrow focus to sales of devices, maybe even jettison acquisitions which have sucked in cash and distracted from main objective.
Can anyone tell me what the MCap was when this raised significant capital at £1.80 without me having to look it up.
I can see the SP has gone up from the 20p Raise to 37p and we are at £132m value today so I’m guessing the last raise was based on about £60m ? But how does that relate to the earlier raise?
Has the value of the business gone up or down over the last three years? Thanks
Firstly, to address any lingering doubt with regards to future funding requirements, on the current trajectory the evidence strongly suggests further funding would no longer be required to support future organic growth before reaching profitability. With a caveat, should the demand for Speedboat Ultraslim exceed current production capacity to such an extent to trigger a requirement for further investment in manufacturing capacity, or for growth by acquisition.
In either scenario, this would be backed up by a material increase in revenues from the current baseline.
This is now without doubt, a very exciting time for the company and its investors.
A few years ago, Baillie Gifford cited Creo as one of the most exciting and innovative companies they had come across in many years and they became a significant shareholder.
But due recently to the worst market conditions for AIM and small cap growth companies in the living memory of most, and due to being a forced seller because of fund redemptions, their stake in the company has been reduced to 1.995%, down from a previous holding of 7.30% in June last year.
In hindsight, I think BG were a little ahead of their time with Creo.
To quote a famous song from Bob Dylan: "The Times They Are A-Changin’"
As has been seen, Creo have got off to a very positive start ahead of the new year with first use cases of Speedboat Ultraslim in the USA and Europe and most recently, Latin America.
These cases provide a great platform for endorsement and I imagine that their phone lines are ringing hot and the management and salesforce teams are working a lot of overtime.
We anticipate a lot of news on progress in the new year and the update from NICE. Although we don't yet know what the outcome of that will be and Speedboat is already being used to great effect in some UK hospitals, we should be reminded of the recent statement from Creo's CEO in this regard:
"Using our technology, initial
health economic data has
demonstrated that the NHS
can save approximately
£5,000 per procedure"
Excerpt from a research note published by Edison on 14th December 2023 that concludes with:
"In November 2023, Speedboat UltraSlim received 510(k) clearance from the FDA for its Speedboat UltraSlim device, close on the heels of the accelerated clearance pathway in Europe (18 months earlier than anticipated). Management has indicated that the validation work and transfer to manufacturing has now been completed and launch activities should pick up pace in the coming weeks, with a full launch anticipated in early 2024 in Europe. We believe this will be swiftly followed by a launch in the US as well as in other geographies such as Asia-Pacific. We see the launch of the UltraSlim version as a key commercial win for Creo, supporting greater top-line traction for the core portfolio in FY24."
https://www.edisongroup.com/research/ultraslim-launch-kicking-off-fy24-momentum/33060/
From Creo Twitter
Following our EMEA and USA milestones, this week Speedboat UltraSlim was used for the first time in Latin America with Dr Michel Kahaleh, Dr Juan Alcivar and Dr Eduardo Albeniz performing #POEM & #FPOEM procedures at #IECED Hospital, Ecuador.
Strange newsflow. It's as if they read my comment a couple of days ago and decided to reply with a whole raft of use cases from the States ( : Surely they knew about this when the previous RNS went out - or did all these procedures happen this week? ( : Anyway, great news that Creo tech is suddenly addressing so many different patient conditions. Shows how quick adoption can happen. With trained eager physicians ready to go, and manufacturing in place, it feels like most of the hard work has been done now and it's time to reap the rewards and move forward with other products. Not quite certain yet, but it really looks like this is the start of a VERY positive step change in this branch of surgery, with Creo right at the heart of it.
I am in full agreement. The thing clearly holding it back is any ongoing funding worry. If the sales go well however that concern should evaporate in a puff of contracts. I invested in these several years ago at much higher levels but came back in for a lot more recently having decided to take a chance on sales bringing in sufficient income to prevent any future dilutive fund raise. So fingers crossed.
Another step forward for this great little company.
Today's the day, surely? The sales team is strongly building global momentum. This is set to explode. Not a ramp... I feel genuinely inspired by this story.
It's a slightly confusing update. They got approval from the FDA last month, and fast-tracked for approval in Europe, but now the first use case is in the UK. From previous updates you might have thought the US would be first? Anyway the big news is they are into manufacturing now, so the revenues from this excellent new product should start rolling in next year, from both markets.
Why is this static today? Should be taking off like a jet from Northolt.
A timely update on where this Company is and is going I could not be more pleased with the progress, it looks like this will go places.
CMR raised money in September:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/james-staveley-a0003a2_uk-robotic-surgery-group-raises-165mn-activity-7110156657711566848-2ydo
They mentioned the work with Intuitive, but CREO also have a deal with a British company - CMR surgical. Much smaller than Intuitive, but arguably nimbler, and closer. Both partnerships are aimed at integrating CREO tools with robot arms, for robot-assisted surgery. Not sure if takeover would make economic sense, as robotics is only one potential revenue source, but if so, Intuitive might face competition. Lot's of "ifs" - this is a speculative one, but even without the robot wars it's interesting, very interesting.
Good spot that.
Creo discussion starts around 35mins to help folks.
Worth watching this video with Twin Petes Investing. CREO mentioned from 35 mins in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvvHAjV2ywQ&t=3610s&pp=2AGaHJACAQ%3D%3D
Discussion/speculation that Intuitive (a behemoth) who CREO have a multi-year agreement with could be a potential acquirer of CREO.
https://creomedical.com/latest_news/collaboration-agreement-with-intuitive/
Good to see some market confidence in this. As expressed they seem to be ready as a company to move on. Just a matter of getting the contracts now so fingers crossed
I think that we will soon start to see the contracts rolling in for the company's leading edge medical technology. Once this happens , i can see us pushing past the £1 mark with ease.
Strong buying again today.
Tick up has already started. Bid is 35.5. Imagine having an industry lead in Robotic Surgery. A massive earner.
Apologies there fat fingers, sure you get the jist !!
Let's hope there's some real uptake from the II's etc. I am expecting the feedback from the consultants/clinicians to be quite impressive.
I also wonder how things are progressing with the robotics side, with the large size of the companies involved, it's a very interesting area.
Let's hope for an up tick in SP as Creo gets it's name out there.
"The Company will provide greater detail on the commercial and clinical progress of its products..."
Is that potentially at odds with:
The event is open to institutional investors, sell-side analysts and media only. To request a place at the event, please contact Walbrook PR on +44 (0)20 7933 8780 or creo@walbrookpr.com.
No new material information will be disclosed during the event.
I see that Numis have a 205p price target on the stock. Very undervalued.