Member Info for IntraVnus

All of the below major developments have occurred in the last six months. The share price has barely moved in that period.

Next interim report is the second interim period to 31/3/25 (would have been the year end but that’s now extended to 30/9/25). New year end seemingly changed to coincide with Coloplast year end. Significant in my view. Coloplast is a €20Bn giant with Danish HQ and stock market listing.

Abiss was bought by RUA because (basically) Coloplast asked them to. This was to stabilise the European/French supply chain for Coloplast for the Aris and Supris brands that Abiss makes for them.

Coloplast has historically been RUA Medical’s main customer (US based subsidiary).

RUA recently told us that they are looking to bolster Abiss’s business with an eye on expanding the main customer’s business. They also said European demand is increasing for the Cyrene brand. This is the brand not currently made for Coloplast. Maybe it’s the Polish subsidiary’s expertise? Put all these strategies together and I would say that maybe Coloplast want a piece of Cyrene business?

Recent RNS told us that in the last quarter of Abiss 2024, the company made €500k. That’s also RUA’s first quarter of owning Abiss. There were some backlog orders to catch up with but RUA paid nothing for those.

There’s also a likely £1M - £2M non-cash net asset uplift in value of Abiss to be credited in total.

We also learned of a new 5 year contract in RUA Medical worth up to £3.3M and at least £500k pa. This seems to be a different global medtech where previously only small business had been done by RUA Medical.

I’m hopeful the next update including the six months to 31/3/25 will make it clear what a change to earnings is happening.

Current £8M market cap includes £4M cash. Yet contract manufacturing and medical devices could soon be turning over £4M with 75% gross margins with operating costs reducing in R&D generally.

Earlier today was possible to buy 60k at 13.35 and 13.875 above that. Yet now it’s 13.00 to buy over 100k. No change to bids side. Seems odd.

Likewise, after the “other priorities” rns, I enquired of Bill. He said he felt pressured by the nomad to say something to the market. The major is also playing by its own rules and will decide as and when. They of course are developing and releasing all manner of new heart valves all the time so cannot be forced into stuff. I have to take all this on trust!

Approx 12.8 to buy even 20k just before close.

As jimzi says, RUA is better positioned having no debt but its share price has historically been treated like IHC’s. My point is that once the market grasps the changes at RUA which means it’s no longer a cash absorbing R&D centre and is now a growing profit maker, the share price should respond significantly. The reaction to IHC yesterday shows the scope.

If RUA does a deal on HV or Vascular, that would be a rocket boosting cherry on the improving cake.

IHC now up nearly 100% on the day. Shows what happens when the elastic is wound tightly enough.

As RUA’s most certainly is!

Since all the impressive recent news over December/January, it has so far been met with an almost zero share price change…..

Worth looking at the share price reaction today at IHC following a positive trading update. That company is in the medical device sector and has a bombed out share price causing it to reset, cost cut and rethink strategy. With the first signs of this paying off, today’s update has resulted in a 50% uplift from a low base.

There seems no reason to believe it will be any different for RUA when the market finally takes on board the recovery in trading and strategic goals being established.

We’ve had more firm bases turn into failed soufflés this year than I’ve had hot dinners. Meanwhile, the fundamental base case has firmed up strongly so I am very hopeful we will finally see a genuine breakout before long. That said, I would be happy to see it edge ahead gradually to 20p so as not to wake up the day traders too early….

Quick history visit:

RUA (then called Aortech) acquired RUA Medical Devices Ltd in April 2020 from David Richmond (still a 1.5M shareholder). Richmond himself acquired this contract manufacturing business from Lombard Medical in 2013. The “post balance sheet events” note in the 2013 accounts of RUA Medical Devices said (and I paraphrase):

“ 20/12/13 - RUA Medical Devices purchased the assets and goodwill from Lombard Medical (Scotland) Ltd. These comprised the medical device subcontracts manufacturing division of Lombard Medical Technologies PLC. Following this date, RUA Medical secured a 5 year contract to supply implantable medical devices to Coloplast A/S.”

As far as I can see, this is the only time Coloplast’s name was mentioned in published accounts until it got a mention in the Abiss acquisition RNS lady September.

The RUA Medical income to date has mainly been from a US based customer (which has since renewed its supply contract more than once and currently runs to 2027 I think). The customer must therefore must be Coloplast’s US subsidiary.

Now that RUA has acquired ABISS, which supplies Coloplast in European markets, you get a picture of that relationship.

The latest RNS that referred to a new 5 year deal is however (I think) with a different “global customer” as that “existing business” had only done circa £500k of business with RUA before (one sixth of the size of the new contract).

Worth focussing on the short but concise quote from Bill Brown in the ABISS RNS:

"Abiss is demonstrating itself to be a very high-quality business, and the combination with RUA allows a number of strategic opportunities to be pursued in further developing the group."

Phrases like “…strategic opportunities…” and “…further developing the group…” pique my interest!

It’s also clear that they are running an operation with Coloplast uppermost in mind. Not only the change of accounting date to match theirs (Sept) but also the phrase:


“The objective for the enlarged business unit and Abiss specifically is to grow revenues through broadening the product range offered to the division's largest customer.“

That being said, it was interesting that the ABISS update ended with this:

“Budgets and business planning are currently being undertaken with expectations for further revenue growth driven by increasing demand in Europe for ABISS's Cyrene product range.”

Note the emphasis on “Cyrene”. If you go back to the original acquisition RNS last September, it said:

“Abiss owns the IP and has CE Mark approval for three products in the SUI field, Aris, Supris and Cyrene which are marketed in Europe by distributors (including an Abiss 60% subsidiary in Poland). The Aris and Supris products are licensed to and manufactured for Coloplast who hold FDA approval for these products in the US.”

Therefore, by deduction, Coloplast doesn’t have rights to Cyrene. That is going well and maybe that’s big in Poland where they have the best product.

I don’t know if it is but with the emphasis on looking to broaden product ranges for the “largest customer” (assumed to be Coloplast), it begs the question whether Coloplast would like some of that action too.

I don’t know, just speculating based on things in the many RNS’s!

Last week’s updates on CM (new multi year contract) and ABISS (bumper profits in RUA’s first quarter of owning it) were affirming messages that should have added a minimum 7p to the share price in my very humble opinion given the solid nature of those additional future earnings. Hey ho, these are today’s markets in AIM. If the market won’t do its job, someone else will move in for RUA.

Expanding on CM/ABISS, the following was stated in December’s interims:

“The acquisition (ABISS) has enabled us to achieve our stated objective of doubling the scale of this business unit, with many other opportunities for further growth. The acquisition of Abiss came with a €900k order backlog due to a shortage of packaging materials, and the short-term priority has been to catch up with those orders, which are expected to be completed in the second interim period. The objective for the enlarged business unit and Abiss specifically is to grow revenues through broadening the product range offered to the division's largest customer. RUA has held unexploited IP related to integrating Elast-EonTM into SUI devices to address the complications occasionally suffered by patients.“



So, for the last quarter and probably this one, emphasis has been on straightening out the messes left by the administrator (backlog of orders and probably a few other organisational matters). Once that’s done, it will have created a windfall in revenue and gross profits, as suggested by this week’s update. They’ve also got to finalise the revaluation of assets to work out the bargain gain to add to the balance sheet. That could be €1.5m - €2m although it’s just an adjustment rather than extra cash.


With the ABISS integration hopefully soon completed and they satisfy themselves with how it’s being run, the board can get on with trying to realise the “many other opportunities for growth”.

Popeye, ref the new £3.3M contract, both the Abiss acquisition RNS in Sept and the recent announcement of the £3.3M contract RNS say that it follows on from the 24/7 £400k contract.

9 Sep 24:

“ This complementary acquisition is in line with RUA's strategy to grow and expand its Contract Manufacture business and leverages the Group's strong customer relationships and reputation for quality. It alone is expected to secure the Group's medium term growth targets and, together with the project announced on 24 July, which the group hopes to convert into a longer-term supply contract, positions the Group well to further accelerate this position.”

29 Jan 25:

“ Further to the textile processing project announced on 24 July last year, RUA has now entered a multi-year supply contract with the global customer. The agreement covers two product lines, unit volumes and unit pricing. The revenue expected during the current calendar year is anticipated to grow over time with a potential value over a five-year period of £3.3 million. This new contract represents a six-fold increase on the level of business undertaken for the customer prior to commencing work on the project.”

The reference to “six times” is presumably to work done for that customer before the £400k addition (which at the time of award was said to be for an existing customer).

This suggests to me that the other £100k customer might still be waiting for lift off!

I agree that it is overall less than clear. Maybe they’ll go to town with details in the next interim update. The 18 month finals to Sep25 will be a while yet.

Agreed greeneyes, this share is becoming grossly mispriced. In my opinion, the two recent RNS’s on CM and Abiss are worth at least 4p per share each on earnings potential alone.

The director purchase, albeit modest, is maybe an elbow in the side for the market to wake up!

There was a post yesterday after the Abiss rns from a poster who said the £400k initial contract from last July was the one converted into the £3.3M 5 year contract. Sounded knowledgable about things.

The directors will want a big move miles above 11p over the next couple of years to make those options meaningful. They can’t get at them until 2027 unless there’s a takeover of capital return in the meantime. Whichever way, the incentives are there for the directors to get this right.

In 1980, the solid rocky side of Mount St Helens, a mountain in the US, began to bulge under pressure from volcanic forces below. Despite all the pressure, it failed to erupt…….until it did.

In May 1980, the pressure caused a tremor, a rockslide and finally a violent explosion which wiped out the civilisation for miles in one direction (YouTube has lots on it).

Why do I think of RUA in that way?

Short note from Cavendish this morning:

“RUA Life Sciences has provided a trading update for its French subsidiary, ABISS, which was acquired in September 2024. Trading was significantly 4Q24 weighted, with the first 9-months, pre-acquisition, being impacted by significant supply chain challenges that were resolved in the final quarter. A pretax loss of c€450k was recorded for the first 9-months while the final quarter delivered a pretax profit of c€500k, which will be consolidated by RUA. FY24 ABISS revenues were €2.3m, up 7% YoY, with RUA expecting further growth to be generated from this business. Following the positive trading update from October 2024, the recent announcement of a new supply agreement and this positive ABISS update, we believe RUA is building strong momentum towards becoming a profitable business and see the shares trading at a discount to this expectation.“

Clearly the institution (maybe Rathbones?) selling down continues to use demand spikes to sell into. Note the ongoing chunks of round numbers.

We could do with the company updating the shareholder list which was last updated in June 2024.

Given that the ITDA in EBITDA is mostly non-cash adjustments, that suggests a fair bit of the £500k is cash into the bank. Also, as the acquisition took place only in September 2024, very little of the preceding losses should form part of RUA’s overall numbers as they were “pre-acquisition” so are lost in the overall purchase price of the company, which was €80k.