David Budd, CEO of genedrive plc, commented: “The disposal of the service business is in line with our stated strategy to focus fully on the near patient molecular diagnostic market and will provide additional cash to continue to drive the Genedrive® platform forward.
“Our diagnostics operations are well positioned having established distribution agreements for our HCV ID kit in a number of major markets, and we have commenced commercial sales to our Distributors. We believe Genedrive® can play an important role in the diagnosis and management of HCV in territories where access to centralised laboratories is limited. We also plan to re-enter the large mTB market and expect to capitalise on other opportunities in markets where Genedrive’s speed, cost and accessibility provide tangible benefits to end users.”
The Disposal is to Epistem 2 Limited (the “Buyer”), a company in which Dr Catherine Booth, a Director of the Company, is also a director and material shareholder. Accordingly, the Disposal needs to be approved by shareholders under section 190 of the Companies Act 2006 (the “Act”). The Disposal is also a related party transaction under AIM Rule 13 and further details relating to this are set out in the paragraph headed “Related Party Transaction and Recommendation” below.
The Company is convening a General Meeting (the “General Meeting”) to be held at The Innovation Centre, 48 Grafton Street, Manchester, M13 9XX on Monday 4 June 2018 at 12.30 pm to consider, and if thought fit, approve a resolution authorising the Disposal for the purposes of section 190 of the Act (the “Resolution”).
The board of directors of genedrive (the “Board”) believes the Disposal is in the best interests of the Company and shareholders as a whole. The Board is recommending that the Company’s shareholders vote in favour of the resolution to be proposed at the General Meeting as further set out in the paragraph headed “Related Party Transaction and Recommendation” below. Having declared her interest in this matter, Dr Booth has not taken part in the Board’s consideration of the Disposal or in the recommendation to vote in favour of the resolution to be proposed at the General Meeting.
