Yet another regional business joins stampede to quit AIM

Infection prevention business Byotrol has confirmed it is to quit the stock market.

In a move flagged in December, the crisis hit Manchester-based business also alerted the markets to expected losses and no prospects of any revenue from intellectual property expected before the financial year end, meaning growing losses of approximately £1m, compared to £0.7m the previous year on product sales of £4.3m. 

Byotrol was hit by the sudden departure of chief executive Vivan Pinto in September, sparking the return of David Traynor to run the business, a role he previously covered from 2013 to 2022.

In this morning’s statement the company said: “The Directors believe – despite recent good progress in the products business – that it is no longer financially viable for Byotrol to continue to trade as an AIM quoted business.”

In an echo of the statement by the board of Manchester-based drug discovery business C4X which made a similar announcement yesterday, the key factors include the cost of being listed. 

“A continued AIM quotation has become unnecessarily costly and regulatorily burdensome for our current stage of development,” the company said.

In addition: “The lack of liquidity in our ordinary shares and the volatility of our share price has a materially adverse impact on the perception of the company by customers, suppliers, employees and other stakeholders.  The Directors do not believe the current market valuation reflects the underlying strength of the Company’s product business, its IP portfolio or the current market opportunity.”

If 75% of shareholders agree to the delisting Byotrol will seek a Capital Reorganisation  and Dr Trevor Francis, Non-Executive Chairman since April 2023, will step down and return to a Non-Executive Directorship and be replaced by Ashley Head, currently Non-Executive Director.

The company will also attempt an equity fundraising of up to £500,000 in new shares.

The move is not a total shock. In December Dr Trevor Francis, chairman of Byotrol said the review of operations has been conducted against a highly volatile economic environment and “an almost complete disappearance of AIM as a funding solution for micro caps, except for tax-based investment in new issues.”