MWG.L Regulatory News (MWG)

AIM share code: MWG

6 May 2020

Modern Water PLC

("Modern Water" or "Company")

Modern Water doubles production of reagent in UK with list price value of £500,000

RAWTest AI real-time alert system component to be retrofitted in new Modern Water's Microtox units

Further to the announcement on 30 March 2020 notifying production commencement of the first batch of Modern Water ("MW") reagent, Integumen plc ("Integumen") has commenced shipping to meet the back-orders and growing demand for water contamination detection bacteria from existing clients. With the increase of water hygiene controls around the world due to the COVID-19 public health crisis, production volume has doubled to a list price value of £500,000 per batch. Revenues from sales of reagent produced under the revenue sharing manufacturing agency agreement with Integumen (the "Agreement") will be split 60% / 40% in favour of Modern Water, after costs. The Company expects that that sales of reagent under the Agreement will have a value of at least $1.25m in the current financial year.

Integumen and Modern Water have accelerated the integration of their respective water monitoring equipment and AI based contamination detection abilities following increased orders of the Microtox range in Europe and SE Asia, including back fitting Integumen AI based capabilities to the 10 top-of-the-range Microtox CTM units to be shipped to China in the third quarter of 2020 as announced on 23 December 2019.

Microtox equipment are built to be modular and expandable. Within this hardware capacity Integumen is configuring its RAWTest[i] AI real-time alert solution to expand the capability of the instruments to detect bacteria, nitrates and phosphates. The roadmap for this integration includes the ability to detect viruses such as SARS-Cov-2. 

The environmental arm of DEFRA[ii] has confirmed it is looking at wastewater epidemiology and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is already monitoring human waste[iii], the ministry of ecology[iv] in China are mandating the hygiene monitoring of water and wastewater and dormant buildings during the epidemic have built up contaminated water in their pipework[v]

Simon Humphrey, CEO of Modern Water commented:

"The COVID19 public health crisis may have reached its first wave peak, but the next stage of managing future risk of spreading is the early monitoring of water and wastewater. Demand for equipment and our reagents continue to increase and we are delighted to have access to increased production volumes to allow us expand and the integrated AI development programme that enhances the Microtox value, improving revenue per client from existing equipment."

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 until the release of this announcement.

About Modern Water plc

Modern Water was established in 2006 to develop and commercialise water recovery technologies to counter water crisis problems arising from climate change and a growing global population. Having invested £20m over the last 14 years, the results comprise of a robust patent portfolio of cutting edge technology, focused on monitoring of contaminated water and decontamination of wastewater, making recycling of water more efficient. Six countries across the world have legislated that Modern Water monitoring test systems are written into their environmental protection legislation.

About Integumen plc

Integumen is a scientific research and AI-as-a-Service company focused on production and analysis of bacteria, virus and toxins utilising artificial intelligent data analytics in regulatory technology, from scientifically proving the impact of skincare product claims on skin microbiome for top 10 global cosmetic company clients to remotely detecting water contamination in real-time.

Caution regarding forward looking statements

Certain statements in this announcement, are, or may be deemed to be, forward looking statements. Forward looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as ''believe'', ''could'', "should" ''envisage'', ''estimate'', ''intend'', ''may'', ''plan'', ''potentially'', "expect", ''will'' or the negative of those, variations or comparable expressions, including references to assumptions. These forward looking statements are not based on historical facts but rather on the Directors' current expectations and assumptions regarding the Company's future growth, results of operations, performance, future capital and other expenditures (including the amount, nature and sources of funding thereof), competitive advantages, business prospects and opportunities. Such forward looking statements reflect the Directors' current beliefs and assumptions and are based on information currently available to the Directors.