Business is all about focusing on what you can control and preparing for those probable outcomes that you can't. Sure, this doesn't guarantee success. But at least when opportunities or problems occur, the company is best placed to respond.
Enter Oncimmune (£10.2m mrkcap) - a leading life sciences firm offering autoantibody profiling services to the drug development industry.
Here, since taking over the helm 18 months ago, CEO Martin Gouldstone has refocused the group, slimmed down the cost base, raised fresh capital, re-profiled its IPF debt, and crucially re-energised the sales team - securing a host of contract wins with big pharma.
Today, ONC reported Aug FY24 turnover up 138% to £2.7m (£1.2m LY), a 64% pipeline win rate and 81% repeat revenues, alongside improved EBITDA losses of -£2.5m vs -£4.2m LY. That said, it hasn't all been smooth sailing.
Over the past 3 months, the firm has been impacted by another temporary slowdown across the biopharma sector, which has triggered order delays, 1 deferral and 1 cancellation. Despite this, Feb H1'25 revenues are anticipated to climb a healthy 20% to £1.4m (£1.19m LY), and the Board anticipates August FY25 sales to jump 45% to £4.0m and become cashflow positive in FY26.
Encouragingly, there are now early signs that demand is returning to normal, and the company is exploring not only a number of "strategic collaborations and transformative contracts" (eg autoimmune) that could materially improve performance - but also several strategic partnerships and business synergies in order to build critical mass, alongside additional finance to extend the cash runway.
Elsewhere, Oncimmune is further cutting its cloth too - and has already taken steps to ensure its overheads and debt service costs will be significantly lower in FY25 vs FY24 - resulting in a cost base of c. £5m pa. With regards to liquidity, there is currently £1m of cash available as of 31 Jan'25, compared to £1.5m of loan principal outstanding.
CEO Martin Gouldstone commenting: "FY24 has seen us grow the business at an unprecedented rate with some pleasing positive indicators for larger contracts at the year end. Being able to equitise a substantial portion of our debt has significantly improved the capital profile of the business. Whilst the Industry has experienced some challenges in terms of large Pharma budget cuts in the period, we are seeing signs of this easing and the potential for further growth in 2025 that could be accelerated if certain discussions with partners/customers progress to plan".
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