Reverse takeover gives birth to new fertility company

YORK-based fertility products supplier, Concepta Diagnostics is to begin trading on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) – backed by investment from Mercia Technologies.

Concepta, one of the Warwickshire specialist funder’s portfolio of companies, has moved to AIM by way of a reverse takeover of Frontier Resources International, accompanied by a fundraising. The move sees Frontier renamed Concepta.

Through a proposed subscription, placing and open offer, Frontier intends to raise around £3.5m in new funds to support the continued growth of the business.

Mercia is to continue funding the business with an injection of £1m.

In May, Mercia announced that it had invested £400,000, via a convertible loan note, into Concepta.

Enterprise Ventures, which was acquired by Mercia in an £11m deal in March, had previously provided third party, early stage capital to Concepta via the Finance Yorkshire Seedcorn Fund, in line with Mercia’s Complete Capital funding model.

Following the latest transaction, Mercia will hold approximately 18.34% of Concepta’s share capital.

Mercia said the reverse takeover reinforced the strategic rationale behind its acquisition of Enterprise Ventures.  

“A key value driver behind the acquisition was to enable Mercia to expand the pipeline of opportunities from which it can make direct investments into business developed over time through its managed third party funds and Concepta is a perfect example of this strategy in action,” said Mercia in a market update.
 
Based in York, and founded by a group of experienced scientists who previously worked for Unipath in the fields of fertility and women’s health, Concepta has developed a range of market-ready fertility products.

The product range recently achieved product registration in one of its largest target markets, China, where the abolition of China’s one-child policy is expected to drive significant demand for a cost-effective at-home fertility monitoring system as parents seek to have additional children.

Completion of the reverse takeover is subject to approval by Frontier’s shareholders at a general meeting scheduled for July 25, which if approved, will see the firm move to AIM the following day.

Mercia has said a further announcement will be made in due course.