Tekcapital raises £0.38m to advance Guident, Salarius

Intellectual property investment company Tekcapital has raised £0.38m, it announced on Tuesday, to allow its Guident and Salarius investments to take advantage of new opportunities.

The AIM-traded firm said the £0.38m, before expenses, was raised through the issue of 4.75 million placing shares at 8p each.

It said the funds raised would be used to iIncrease its investment in Guident and commit up to $0.35m for the rapid design and fabrication of its new regenerative shock absorbers for road testing, by two listed automotive companies that had recently signed non-disclosure agreements.

They would also be used to increase its investment in Salarius and commit up to $0.15m for sales and product support for business-to-business sales of ‘MicroSalt’ in Mexico, following the recently-signed distribution agreement with FXM Ingredients.

Tekcapital said it was a “timely opportunity” for Salarius, as the Mexican government enacted a new law in October requiring front-of-package labelling for snack foods containing large amounts of sodium.

As a result, snack food companies were said to be “keen” to lower their sodium content on a range of products.

Additionally, Salarius was seeking to enhance its upcoming Amazon launch and sales of ‘SaltMe’ crisps, by producing and including small retail bag design and inventory in addition to their family size packaging.

The board noted that the placing price represented a discount of about 8.6% to the closing mid-market price of 8.75p on 16 November.

It said the placing shares represented around 5.4% of its existing shares and would, when issued, represent approximately 5.1% of the enlarged share capital.

“We are pleased to announce the completion of this placing as it will enable us to accelerate the further development of Guident and Salarius as they seek to capitalise on recent positive developments,” said executive chairman Clifford Gross.

“Progress with Lucyd is on track with their new ‘Lyte E-glasses’, and our previous guidance regarding the likely receipt of FDA clearance by Belluscura in the second half remains unchanged.”

At 1400 GMT, shares in Tekcapital were up 9.49% at 9.58p.