City round-up: Redx Pharma; NCC Group, Blue Prism
Cheshire drugs discovery business Redx Pharma said today that a milestone payment of approximately £2.86m from AstraZeneca has been triggered.
This is as a result of progress in the development of RXC006, a preclinical porcupine inhibitor, targeting fibrotic diseases including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).
The milestone payment forms part of the previously announced £12.6m in early payments between deal signature and the successful commencement of the first clinical trial.
Under this agreement, in addition to the £12.6m in early payments, Redx may receive up to a further £257.4m in development and commercial milestone payments throughout the course of the programme. The company is also eligible to receive tiered royalties of mid-single digit percentages, based on any future net sales.
Redx chief executive, Lisa Anson, said: “We are extremely pleased that AstraZeneca are progressing RXC006 and the successful achievement of this milestone payment highlights, once again, Redx’s ability to generate molecules that have significant potential as novel medicines for unmet medical needs.
“We look forward to AstraZeneca progressing RXC006 into clinical trials and potentially delivering to patients who need new treatment options.”
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Adam Palser, CEO of NCC Group
NCC Group, the Manchester-based cyber security firm, said it expects revenues and adjusted EBIT for 2021 to beat previous forecasts, due to better than expected trading towards the end of the year.
In a trading update ahead of publishing its results for the year ended May 31, 2021, on August 5, it said the board expects revenues to be slightly ahead of the prior year and for adjusted EBIT to be towards the higher end of consensus expectations of between £33.7m to £36.2m.
For the current financial year, 2022, the board expects higher revenue growth accompanied by increased global costs from inflationary pressures, as well as a resumption in travel and office usage.
The group has maintained its cash management discipline which has resulted in net cash as at May 31, 2021, of c.£83m, compared with net debt of £4.2m the previous year, and net cash of £3m in November 2020. This figure includes the net placing proceeds of £70.7m to part fund the acquisition of IPM for $220m which completed on June 7, 2021.
Chief executive, Adam Palser, said: “The skill and determination of my colleagues in NCC Group have resulted in an excellent trading performance given the background of a global pandemic. I would like to thank them all for their contribution.
“It is a pleasure to welcome our new team from the recent acquisition of Iron Mountain’s IPM division. Joining forces transforms our software resilience business, making it a market leader, and we look forward with confidence to the future.”
He added: “We will continue to invest in organic and inorganic growth opportunities, building on the strong foundations that we have put in place over the last three years to seize the opportunities presented by the ascendance of cybersecurity as a top priority for businesses globally.”
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Jason Kingdon
Robotics and automation company Blue Prism has seen a 24% jump in half year revenues.
Group revenues for the six months to the end of April climbed from £66.6m to £80.4m.
The group reported bookings of £98m, growing 35% compared to the same period in the prior year.
Jason Kingdon, chairman and CEO, said: “Bookings grew 35% in the first half, with constant currency revenues increasing by 24%.
“We continue to attain strong retention metrics and new bookings for our Blue Prism Cloud (BPC) SaaS platform grew 65% year on year and accounted for 22% of new bookings for the period.
“Whilst remaining disciplined on spending and re-confirming our aim to be cash break-even by the end of the full financial period, we have significantly invested in R&D, enabling a record number of product releases to enhance scale and usability of the core product.
“With over 2,000 customers, we want to remain at the forefront of developing next generation intelligent automation, so we are reviewing our go-to-market model and the product and service formats to ensure we meet the needs for strategic transformation demanded in the C-suite.
“Our global customer base remains robust.”
Blue Prism said the outlook remains unchanged and based on H1 reported ARR of £162m, the Board believes FY21 revenue is likely to be towards the lower end of the £170m-£180m previously guided range.
