Medical firm launches reverse takeover
INDITHERM has responded to the challenges of growing revenues within the NHS by launching a £7.2m reverse takeover of a medical device company five times its size.
The Rotherham-based company, that has developed heating solutions which it now focuses on the medical sector, lost £356,000 after revenues fell 10% to £1.85m last year and launched a strategic review of its options.
Its response is today’s announcement of a reverse takeover of Inspiration Healthcare, which had revenues of £9.5m and adjusted EBITDA of £800,000 in the year to January 2015.
Inditherm chairman Mark Abrahams said, “We have believed for some time that there is underlying value in Inditherm, but the combination of small scale and overhead costs have been a constraint. This transaction has the potential to unlock shareholder value and represents an excellent outcome to our review of strategic options which we have undertaken over the last year.”
Inditherm, which was founded in 1998 and floated in 2001, has not made a profit in any full year, which it blames on its lack of scale and the overheads involved in development and being listed. The acquisition of Inspiration, and the scale this brings, will enable it to spread these costs across a larger business while also “allowing the medical business to grow with fewer constraints”.
It is also making some early progress on a managed service proposition it has developed in order to access revenue, rather than capital, budgets.
The merged company will be known as Inspiration Healthcare Group and, subject to the deal completing and its application being approval, will be listed on AIM on June 24.
Inditherm’s current chief executive Nick Bettles will leave after more than 10 years with the company, the last seven of which have been as CEO. Non-executive director John Markham will also stand down. Neil Campbell, the chief executive and founding partner of Inspiration, will be one of three executives on the new five-strong board.
