In connection with AcouSort's announcement of its plan to carry out a rights issue, several shareholders have contacted the company with questions regarding both the issue itself and how the management and board of directors view the future of AcouSort. In this interview, AcouSort's CEO Torsten Freltoft answers the most frequently asked questions.
INTERVIEW
AcouSort recently announced its plan to carry out a rights issue at a very low subscription price compared to previous levels of the share price. Many shareholders are disappointed by this and had expected other options to finance the company's development. What is your comment on this?
Over the past 6-9 months, the Board of Directors has continuously evaluated various financing options to ensure the company's future capital needs. Due to an increasingly risk-averse financial market, the options for securing such financing have been limited. In order to reduce the risk of not being able to continue operations, the Board of Directors therefore decided on March 6 to carry out a partially guaranteed rights issue.
In August last year, the AcouSort share was trading in the range of SEK 18-20. Why didn't you carry out a rights issue then?
It is always very difficult to predict the development of share prices for companies and the Board of Directors had no possibility to predict the decline in AcouSort's share price that occurred during the autumn/winter. The board acted on the basis of the information available at the time.
Some shareholders are also disappointed that the founders and management do not participate in the planned rights issue with more than approximately SEK 1 million. What are your comments about this?
AcouSort's founders and management have regular jobs - we are not investors with available capital to invest. In the past, we have always supported the company's share emissions with approximately half a million SEK. This time we have managed to double this amount.
How will the Board of Directors lead the company going forward to ensure that AcouSort does not end up in the same financial situation again?
AcouSort's board and management have only one goal - to develop AcouSort into a successful company. Over the past year, we have established a number of new interesting collaborations, most of them with OEM potential. The ambition is that through close development work with our partners, we will be able to transform these partnerships into long-term OEM deals that create value for all of the company's stakeholders, not least our shareholders.
The significantly increased influx of new potential OEM projects proves that our intensified marketing efforts at conferences and trade fairs after the Covid pandemic is paying off.
It remains the Board's firm ambition to identify and secure one or more strong and committed long-term investors who support the company through our visionary journey towards becoming the Gold Standard for automated bio-sample processing.
Commercial success is the final proof that AcouSort is on the right track. How will this be achieved in the future?
AcouSort's technology delivers the absolute most value when integrated into larger systems for diagnostics, cell therapy, flow cytometry and quality control. It is in these areas that we see good opportunities to establish long-term and profitable collaborations with major international players. In parallel with these medium- and long-term ambitions, we are also working on product sales to strengthen our cash flow, but the really interesting potential for the company lies in collaborations with other life science players.
To further drive this ambition, the company's Nomination Committee is currently working on identifying candidates to further broaden and strengthen the Board. We hope to be able to provide more information about this within the next few months.
What does collaboration with OEM partners look like today, and when can shareholders expect concrete business agreements that affect the company's earnings?
AcouSort currently has several active collaborations with OEM partners where we work closely to integrate our technology into their systems. Over the past year, we have seen a clear increase in interest from potential OEM partners, and we have initiated several development projects with the aim of creating long-term commercial partnerships.
Turning these collaborations into formal business agreements takes time because our solutions are often part of larger, regulatory development processes with our partners. However, we are working purposefully to accelerate this process and expect that some of our ongoing OEM collaborations can lead to concrete commercial agreements within the next 12-24 months.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT ACOUSORT, PLEASE CONTACT:
Torsten Freltoft, CEO
Telephone: +45 2045 0854
E-mail: torsten.freltoft@acousort.com
ABOUT ACOUSORT
AcouSort AB (corporate registration number 556824-1037) is an innovative technology company focusing on developing products and solutions for integrated preparation of biological samples. With the help of sound waves, the company's products can separate blood cells, concentrate, purify, and stain cells, exosomes, and bacteria from biological samples. The technology of the company's products is acoustofluidics, where sound waves and microfluidics enable automated handling of samples in a range of application areas, from research on new biomarkers to the development of new diagnostic systems for near-patient testing - so-called Point-of Care (POC) systems. The company's commercialization strategy is based on the already proven business model of providing separation modules to diagnostic system manufacturers for integrated sample preparation as well as to continue the commercialization of the company's research instruments. With the help of the company's products and development of point-of-care tests, new diagnostic systems and treatments are enabled, addressing some of the most challenging disease areas of our time: cancer, infectious diseases, and cardiovascular diseases. AcouSort is listed at Nasdaq First North Growth Market. The company's Certified Adviser is Carnegie Investment Bank AB (publ).
