TIDMTERN
RNS Number : 9370N
Tern PLC
04 February 2021
4 February 2021
Tern Plc
("Tern" or the "Company")
Portfolio Update
Tern Plc (AIM:TERN), the investment company specialising in the
Internet of Things ("IoT"), is pleased to provide an update on the
recent activities of the Company and a number of its portfolio
companies, being Device Authority Limited ("Device Authority"),
FVRVS Limited ("FundamentalVR") and Talking Medicines Limited
("Talking Medicines").
Highlights
-- A further contract win for Fundamental VR valued at approximately US$0.7 million.
-- Talking Medicines is today launching its artificial
intelligence and natural language processing powered patient
intelligence platform, PatientMetRx, to provide a systematic way of
measuring the patient experience of medicines for the
pharmaceutical industry.
-- In order to provide Device Authority with further working
capital to facilitate its significant pipeline of opportunities,
Tern has provided an additional approximately US$0.3 million to
Device Authority in the form of a further convertible loan,
alongside an additional convertible loan investment of
approximately US$0.1 million from Alsop Louie Partners and the
George Samenuk Trust.
-- As at 31 December 2020, Tern had unaudited cash resources of
GBP2.1 million, with approximately GBP0.38 million subsequently
invested in its portfolio companies, Device Authority and Wyld
Networks Limited ("Wyld Networks"), as part of their recent
syndicated fundraisings.
Commenting Al Sisto, CEO of Tern, said :
"The momentum with our portfolio companies highlighted in the 12
January 2021 update continues. We announced Wyld Networks'
fundraising on 28 January and I am pleased to note further progress
by three of our other portfolio companies.
"FundamentalVR continues to win more important contracts and the
launch today of PatientMetRx by Talking Medicines is, I believe, a
milestone achievement for them. The systematic data driven tools
that other industries use to measure customer experience have not
previously been available to pharmaceutical companies at scale and
the industry has to date relied on indirect feedback from
clinicians, patient advocacy or ad hoc focus groups. We believe
that PatientMetRx addresses this issue by providing feedback from
patients that provides a very valuable insight tool for
pharmaceutical companies.
"The calibre of the speakers at the virtual IoT security summit
that Device Authority is running later this month highlights Device
Authority's standing in the market and I look forward to updating
on its progress in due course.
"I believe that particularly given the strong fourth quarter
2020 business performance of the portfolio companies, that has
continued into the current year, we are very well positioned. The
Board of Tern believes that the Company's cash resources are
sufficient for its current needs, including developing the
portfolio and supporting the progress of its portfolio companies,
taking into account the expectation of the availability of
third-party funding to assist the development of the portfolio
companies as appropriate."
Device Authority
Tern has a 56.8% holding in Device Authority (A shares) and as
at 30 June 2020 this had a book valuation of GBP13.8 million. The
previously reported convertible loan balance was US$4 million and
Tern also holds 12,406 B shares in Device Authority. Device
Authority's B shares are non-voting, and in conjunction with its C
shares, participate in 25% of the net proceeds on a liquidity
event.
As highlighted in the Company's portfolio update announced on 12
January 2021, despite the disruption caused by the COVID-19
pandemic, Device Authority finished 2020 strongly, closing five key
orders in its primary sectors in Q4 2020. This momentum has
continued into the current year and in order to provide Device
Authority with further working capital to facilitate its
significant pipeline of opportunities, Device Authority has raised
an additional approximately US$0.4 million. Tern has provided
approximately US$0.3 million of this in the form of a further
convertible loan, bringing Tern's total convertible loan balance in
Device Authority to approximately US$4.3 million. The remainder has
been provided by Alsop Louie Partners and the George Samenuk Trust
who have provided their pro rata share alongside Tern on the same
terms. These additional convertible loans have a maturity date of
31 March 2021 and have otherwise been issued on the same terms as
the second tranche of convertible loan notes to Device Authority,
details of which can be found in the Company's announcement of 28
December 2017.
On 23 and 24 February 2021, Device Authority is holding a
'Virtual IoT Security Summit', with expert speakers and strategic
partners from some of the largest global players in the cyber
identity and access management ("IAM") sector. As protecting IoT
devices, applications and data has become even more business
critical, this event is designed to provide key opinion leadership
on managing the entire IoT security lifecycle, preparing
organisations for the realities of automating, and managing,
large-scale global IoT deployments in the automotive, Industrial
IoT and medical device/healthcare (IoMT) sectors, highlighting some
real examples and use cases. Support from Device Authority's
strategic partners such as Microsoft Azure, EPS Global, Venafi and
others highlights the ecosystem required to execute the secure IoT
lifecycle from secure manufacturing, to protecting applications,
data and assets, as well as integrating IoT assets into the
security operations existing in an enterprise.
FundamentalVR
Tern has a 26.9% holding in FundamentalVR and as at 30 June 2020
this holding had a book valuation of GBP3.0 million.
Following the three important contract wins announced by
FundamentalVR in late November and early December 2020, for a
combined value of GBP1.7 million, FundamentalVR has secured a
further contract with a leading pharmaceutical company to utilise
its unique HapticVR technology.
The contract is with an existing client and expands the use of
FundamentalVR's solution within the client's organisation and has a
total value of US$0.7 million, with FundamentalVR being expected to
recognise this revenue in 2021.
The contract covers configuration and allows for a scaled
rollout of a virtual reality simulation, delivering accelerated,
safe and compliant use of their innovative solution by using the
FundamentalVR platform. The project combines the real-life
deployment of devices with virtual 'Digital Twins' of those
devices, with which clinicians are able to interact with virtual
patient tissue, and also enables remote training and mentoring of
those participating in the simulations.
Talking Medicines
As announced on 4 November 2020, Tern invested GBP0.86 million
for a 23.4% equity stake in Talking Medicines.
Talking Medicines is a social intelligence company designed
specifically for the pharmaceutical industry. By structuring and
translating the patient's voice on social media into actionable
intelligence, it focuses on assisting pharmaceutical companies in
delivering a greater return on investment for marketing and
delivering better health outcomes for patients.
Talking Medicines is today launching PatientMetRx, its
artificial intelligence ("AI") and natural language processing
("NLP") powered social intelligence service, to provide
pharmaceutical companies with insights on patient experience on a
scale and depth not previously possible.
Powered by Eva, a proprietary AI machine developed by Talking
Medicines, PatientMetRx combines machine learning and NLP to
capture the voice of the patient from millions of conversations
taking place over multiple sources including social media, forums
and blogs, mapped to a curated database of 130,000 regulated global
medicines. It distils what patients are saying online, and what
they are feeling, into powerful data insights to provide
pharmaceutical companies with a systematic way of measuring patient
experience towards medicines.
Talking Medicines will sell PatientMetRx on a subscription basis
to clients. Delivered on a digital dashboard, PatientMetRx provides
pharmaceutical companies with a 'Patient Confidence Score' to
benchmark each medicine, offering a systematic way of understanding
trending patient confidence in their drug brands. Tracking this
Patient Confidence Score enables them to more accurately measure
the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, reduce budgets, improve
market competitiveness and deliver better health outcomes for
patients.
Company's Cash Resources
As at 31 December 2020, the Company had unaudited cash resources
of GBP2.1 million. Following investments, of an aggregate of
approximately GBP0.38 million, in its portfolio companies, Wyld
Networks and Device Authority, post 31 December 2020, the Board of
Tern believes that the Company's cash resources are sufficient for
its current needs, including developing the portfolio and
supporting the progress of its portfolio companies, taking into
account the expectation of the availability of third-party funding
to assist the development of the portfolio companies as
appropriate.
Enquiries
Tern Plc via IFC Advisory
Al Sisto (CEO)
Sarah Payne (CFO)
Allenby Capital Limited Tel: 0203 328 5656
(Nominated Adviser and Broker)
David Worlidge / Alex Brearley (Corporate
Finance)
Guy McDougall (Equity Sales and Corporate
Broking)
IFC Advisory Tel: 0203 934 6630
(Financial PR and IR) tern@investor-focus.co.uk
Tim Metcalfe
Graham Herring
Florence Chandler
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END
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