FST.L Regulatory News (FST)

13 February 2012

Toumaz Limited

£11.2m raised to accelerate connectivity chip development and exploit new industry standard

Toumaz Limited (AIM: TMZ, 'Toumaz', or 'the Group'), a pioneer in low cost, ultra low power wireless communications and broadcast technology, has raised £11.2m through a placing ('Placing') of 128,000,001 new ordinary shares of 0.25p ('Ordinary Shares') with institutional investors each at a price of 8.75p per share ('Placing Price').

The proceeds will mainly be used to invest further in Toumaz Microsystems. Toumaz Microsystems was recently established as a new fabless subsidiary by Toumaz with investment and support from Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE:IMG, 'Imagination') to design, develop and sell wireless semiconductor chips and embedded solutions for the growing area of internet and cloud-connected applications.

The potential uses for this technology span across many markets from healthcare, home automation and wireless multimedia to enterprise solutions, monitoring devices and toys. Geographically, Toumaz is seeing growing opportunities across the world with particularly large market potential in the Far East.

Toumaz Microsystems' strategy is to deliver both low-power and high-performance connectivity solutions addressing both ultra low-power, battery-operated connected devices and also high data-rate devices needed for wireless audio and video delivery. A key focus is developing a new multi-standard connectivity chip. This ultra-low power radio receiver and transmitter chip will incorporate the new IEEE standard 802.15.6, for Body Area Networks ('BAN', see notes to editors).

Toumaz has been a very active participant and driver of the IEEE committee specifying and developing this important standard. This new standard has very recently been approved ahead of plan and part of the additional funds will enable Toumaz to develop the first chip incorporating the new standard alongside other key low power radio standards, such as Bluetooth LE and Zigbee, as quickly as possible. Toumaz has a strong next generation connectivity roadmap and on-going developments in both low-power and performance areas which can be executed and exploited with this additional funding and the recent investment and support from Imagination Technologies.

The new chips will also be incorporated in the next generation Sensium solution for wireless healthcare monitoring of vital signs, both in and out of the hospital making it compatible with the new IEEE standard. 

Following this rapid approval of the new standard and establishment of our forward-looking roadmap Toumaz and Imagination have simplified the ownership structure of Toumaz Microsystems through exchanging Imagination's 25% holding in Toumaz Microsystems for 57,142,857 new Ordinary Shares of Toumaz at the Placing Price ('Exchange').

Application has been made for a total of 185,142,858 new Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM, which is expected to be effective from and dealings in the new Ordinary Shares to commence on 16 February 2012. 

Professor Chris Toumazou, CEO of Toumaz, commented:

"The recently approved IEEE standard gives us a window of opportunity to move quickly to set the industry standard for ultra-low power wireless chips for use in Body Area Networks and also the wider wireless home and enterprise connectivity environments.

"The clear trend toward wireless and cloud-connected devices across many embedded markets is set to change the way we live and is creating huge opportunities. Our roadmap across low-power and performance connectivity is designed to build on our extensive experience and enable us to take a big part in shaping and riding these trends."

"Our partnership with Imagination Technologies combined with our skills and know-how give us major competitive advantages and the tools we need to exploit the opportunities that we are seeing."

The Placing has been arranged using the authority granted to directors of the Group at the Company's Annual General Meeting held on 5 May 2011.

Subsequent to the Placing and Exchange, the Company's total issued share capital is 814,580,726 Ordinary Shares. Toumaz holds no shares in treasury. Therefore, the total number of voting rights in Toumaz is 814,580,726.

The above figure 814,580,726 may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, Toumaz under the FSA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

Enquiries:

About Toumaz - (www.toumaz.com)

Toumaz is pioneering low cost, ultra-low power wireless technologies for a wide range of markets including medical monitoring and internet-connected consumer devices.

The Group has two businesses; Toumaz UK covering health technology solutions, and Toumaz Microsystems covering the design and development of semiconductor chips and solutions for low power wireless communication.

Toumaz UK provides wireless healthcare monitoring solutions for the hospital and home health markets. Toumaz's licensable smart sensor interface and transceiver platform, Sensium, is a leader in real-time wireless monitoring of the body's vital signs. Sensium has the potential to transform medical monitoring and reduce the cost of healthcare by wirelessly connecting individuals to healthcare providers - simply, affordably and unobtrusively. For healthcare professionals, this creates new opportunities for pro-active monitoring and improved quality of care. For patients, it delivers new opportunities for lifestyle-compatible personalised healthcare.

Toumaz Microsystems designs, develops and sells semiconductor chips and solutions for the growing embedded wireless connectivity market, addressing opportunities in a wide range of internet connected devices. These include home and enterprise automation, healthcare, smart power, security/monitoring systems, intelligent toys and other connectivity-centric cloud-enabled systems. Its key product, Telran, the world's lowest power radio system-on-chip forms the basis for Toumaz UK 's Sensium platform.

Toumaz is an AIM listed company (AIM: TMZ) with development centres in Abingdon,UK and Taipei City, Taiwan.

About IEEE standard 802.15.6

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is the world's largest technical professional society. It is a leading developer of industry standards in a broad range of technologies and in 2007, its standardization group recognised the need for a new standard targeted specifically at Body Area Networks (BAN). 

BAN applications involve wireless devices worn on or close to the body, from sports and fitness monitors and wireless healthcare products to 3D glasses and next generation wearable computer input gaming devices. Existing short-range wireless protocols such as Bluetooth and Zigbee have power consumption levels which are considered too high for miniature wearable applications, and do not provide the security and reliability needed for certain BAN applications such as wireless medical monitors. 

As a result a task group was formed, with Toumaz a key contributor, to develop a new standard suitable for BAN uses which will be known as 802.15.6. Other key contributors to the standard development include Texas Instruments, GE, Philips, Fujitsu, Samsung and Medtronic. Toumaz was informed that the new standard had been confirmed by the IEEE at the beginning of February 2012.