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- Release Date: 14/10/13 17:59
- Summary: S/HOLDER: BLT: Share Purchase Plan 15 October 2013
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BLT
14/10/2013 15:59
S/HOLDER
REL: 1559 HRS BLIS Technologies Limited
S/HOLDER: BLT: Share Purchase Plan 15 October 2013
BLIS Technologies Limited
Letter to Shareholders
Share Purchase Plan 15 October 2013
BLIS Technologies Limited (BLIS and/or the Company) is pleased to present
this Share Purchase Plan to shareholders following ratification at the Annual
Shareholders Meeting (ASM) of capital raising initiatives in support of
business development strategies.
The requirement for further capital was signalled at the time of the 2012
Share Purchase Plan and Placement and reaffirmed in the 2013 Annual Report.
Specifically Directors advised that new equity was required for the Company
to offset an anticipated near term operating deficit and to meet its capital
expenditure and working capital requirements.
The Directors determined a placement followed by a Share Purchase Plan as the
preferred capital raising process. Placement subscriptions were sought from
private investors and industry participants conditional upon approval at the
ASM. The Board commissioned an independent appraisal report from Simmons
Corporate Finance on the capital raising proposal to ensure shareholders were
informed in making their decision on whether or not to support the
initiatives.
Shareholders at the ASM endorsed the placement of up to 300 million shares at
1 cent per share to parties that included the existing major shareholder
Edinburgh Equity Nominees Limited and new trade investors Asian Pacific
Partners Limited (APPL) and NZPR Group and associated interests (NZPR). At
the date of this letter, pursuant to the placement the company has received
subscriptions for and issued more than 233 million shares.
This Share Purchase Plan provides for the issue of up to a further 150
million shares at 1 cent per share. Shareholders each have the ability to
apply for up to $15,000 of shares (being 1,500,000 shares). The terms and
details of the Share Purchase Plan are set out in the attached documents.
In aggregate these initiatives are expected to raise $3.5-$4.5 million in
support of the commercialisation of BLIS products in New Zealand and
international markets.
Upon completion of the capital raising the Company will have the capital base
necessary to support its business strategies. These strategies entail the
pursuit of global ingredient sales in conjunction with its primary
distributor Novus Nutrition Brands and the parallel implementation of
consumer oral product strategies with its trade partners APPL, NZPR and
others. These strategies will continue to be supported by investment in the
underlying science of the Company's proprietary probiotic strains and
regulatory approval processes.
Other than a delay to the commissioning of the nutritional formulations
plant, business development in the current year is in line with expectations.
The plant has now been commissioned and approvals are being sought for export
of product. The Company will in conjunction with third parties produce and
market milk based formulations mainly for Asian markets. These nutritional
formulations will include beverages with BLIS K12TM and BLIS M18TM
ingredients providing functional foods with BLIS trademarks.
Novus Nutrition Brands has made good progress initiating ingredient sales in
Japan and Europe. Developments include the release in Japan of a companion
animal health care product containing BLIS K12TM.
New Zealand pharmacy and web based sales (http://www.blis.co.nz) are showing
strong growth. The former boosted by our New Zealand distributor's
introduction of a new blister pack format for BLIS K12TM lozenges.
BLIS is collaborating with APPL to identify and develop specific applications
for finished retail products and nutritional formulations. APPL are
professional investors and value added partners with business connections and
commercial partnership capabilities throughout Asia and the Middle East.
NZPR Group Limited is a trade facilitator with extensive business connections
in China that support a wide range of interests. NZPR played a critical role
in obtaining approval for BLIS K12TM as a food ingredient in China. NZPR is
now building the infrastructure in China to distribute BLIS products and
recently reached a major milestone with the appointment of Sinopharm to
market oral health products containing BLIS's probiotics. Sinopharm is the
largest pharmaceutical company in China. Its operations include research and
development, manufacture and a distribution and marketing network that
extends throughout China and internationally.
Although the Company has yet to achieve profitable operations successful
implementation of the business strategies are expected to deliver profits in
the foreseeable future. As outlined in the Simmons Corporate Finance
appraisal report an operating loss is still anticipated in the 2014 financial
year. In the first four months of the 2014 financial year the Company met
its budgeted trading contribution on revenues of $560K (48% of total sales
revenue for 2013 FY).
Conclusion
Your support of the Share Purchase Plan will enable the company to maintain
its core competencies, foster its nutritional formulations business and
leverage the execution of its branded ingredients strategy for advanced
probiotics internationally.
Yours faithfully
BLIS Technologies Limited
Peter Fennessy, Chairman
The BLIS products
BLIS has oral probiotic products in the market in New Zealand and has
established ingredient sales in the United States, Europe and Asia.
The Company's primary focus is on Streptococcus salivarius K12, an oral
bacterium that produces bacteriocin-like inhibitory substances that provide
protection against a range of oral conditions. S. salivarius is a natural
inhabitant of the human mouth with K12 being a particular strain that
produces bacteriocin-like substances (salivaricins) which act as natural
antibiotics and inhibit the growth of undesirable bacteria.
The K12 strain is active against Streptococcus pyogenes which causes
conditions including strep throat. The company has also generated good
clinical evidence (published) for the effectiveness of K12 against
halitosis/bad breath.
BLIS has also developed M18 (another strain of S. salivarius), for which
there is evidence of activity against S. mutans, a pathogen implicated in
caries (tooth decay).
The company has developed significant expertise around the production of
these probiotics that ensures that the organisms are stable and are active in
the mouth of the user. This is an important area of trade secrets.
End CA:00242333 For:BLT Type:S/HOLDER Time:2013-10-14 15:59:08
