(Alliance News) - Integumen PLC on Monday said it has entered into a two-year GBP400,000 loan facility with Cellulac Ltd, a subsidiary of Cellulac PLC, to support growth.
Since the end of 2019, Integumen has increased the size of its Labskin business laboratories to 6,000 square feet from 3,000 square feet and new employees have joined during the Covid-19 lockdown to support higher demand.
Other developments include a doubling of production capacity for Modern Water's reagent bacteria and miniaturisation of its RAWTest AI equipment for SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater and dental xlinics at the University of Aberdeen.
The 24-month unsecured Cellulac loan is intended to support this. It carries a 5% per annum interest rate on drawn amounts and allows Integumen to draw four equal amounts of GBP100,000 per month starting June 30. No other fees are attached to the loan.
"Currently there is no intention to draw down under the facility, which has been put in place to provide additional flexibility, if needed, to meet current and expected demand over the coming months," said Integumen.
Gerard Brandon and Camillus Glover are directors both at Integumen and Cellulac PLC, they also both hold shares in Cellulac PLC.
Shares in Integumen were down 3.3% at 1.74 pence in London on Monday afternoon.
Earlier in the day, the company posted a substantially widened annual loss due to a more than doubling of administrative costs, including a sizeable impairment and a steep rise in amortisation.
Integumen makes Labskin, a human-like skin used for product testing, and its head office is in Dublin. It posted a GBP2.4 million pretax loss for 2019, notably wider than its GBP1.5 million loss the year before.
Revenue trebled to GBP823,000 from GBP274,000 but this was more than offset by an 87% rise in administrative costs to GBP3.0 million from GBP1.6 million.
Included in administrative costs was a GBP241,000 impairment of intangible assets, with no such impairment the year before, as well as a more than quadrupling of amortisation to GBP421,000 from GBP87,000. Costs also included a doubling of exceptional items to GBP532,000 from GBP244,000, and a 37% increase in employee benefit expense to GBP824,000 from GP602,000.
Chair Ross Andrews said: "Covid-19 presented challenges but also major opportunities for Integumen. The initial difficulties that the board had assumed would occur for Labskin business, as many clients went into furlough, have not materialised. Instead, we have seen significant growth of new business opportunities from our real-time water contamination detection and environment sector solutions, contributing to increased demand with additional staff recruited over the lock-down period. The outcome has resulted in an increase of new and core business from Labskin clients as they emerge from furlough.
"The current level of pipeline activity continues to expand. Having integrated the data analytics and AI systems into the Labskin AI eco-system, by year-end the board provided guidance for 2020 revenues of GBP4 million. Orders of GBP2 million have already been received and the board remains confident that the business will continue to flourish as demand grows and as we expand our offering across multiple, but related, sectors."
By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com
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