Admission to Trading and First Day of Dealings

Following the successful reverse takeover by the Company of HeiQ Materials AG (“HeiQ”), an established global brand in materials and textile innovation which operates in high-growth markets, the Company announces admission of the enlarged group to the standard segment of the Official List and initiation of trading on the London Stock Exchange’s Main Market at 8.00 a.m. today under the ticker ‘HEIQ’ (“Admission”). The ISIN of the Ordinary Shares is GB00BN2CJ299 and the SEDOL Code is BN2CJ29.

The admission follows an oversubscribed placing and subscription, raising £60 million (before expenses) from institutional and other investors. A detailed background to the Company and its capital formation is set out in the prospectus dated 12 November 2020, which can be found on the Company’s website, www.heiq.com . As a result of the completion of the reverse takeover, the Company has changed its name to HeiQ plc.

HeiQ: a global, profitable, and fast-growing pioneer in the $24 billion textile chemicals market, directly serving the $10 billion antimicrobial textile market with its recent Swiss Technology Award-winning HeiQ Viroblock technology.

Highlights:

• HeiQ is an environmentally conscious materials and textile innovation company which pioneers materials for life, creating some of the most effective, durable and high-performance textile and materials technologies in the market today, which cool, warm, dry, repel, purify, and destroy viruses.
• HeiQ has developed over 200 technologies in partnership with over 300 major brands, including Burberry, GAP, New Balance, Patagonia, Speedo, The North Face and Zara.
• Founded in 2005, HeiQ has grown into a high growth, cash generative company which employs more than 100 people around the world.
• A high intellectual capital company, HeiQ is led by an experienced management team. HeiQ’s rapid deep innovation capabilities enable new solutions for its partners. HeiQ quickly delivers scaled up manufacturing from its sites across the world and co-promotes partners end products to end consumers – aiming for lab to consumer in a matter of months.
• HeiQ’s latest innovation – HeiQ Viroblock – an award-winning antimicrobial technology which helps in the fight against enveloped viruses, including SARS-CoV-2 (the virus causing COVID-19), is already being used by more than 150 major brands such as Burberry.
• In licensing the HeiQ Viroblock technology to third parties, HeiQ has achieved a wide distribution of branded products and strongly increased consumer awareness of the HeiQ brand.
• The Company’s aim is to deliver growth for the Company’s shareholders by driving increased sales of HeiQ’s core products and by entering additional lucrative markets through disruptive innovations. The Company’s focus in increasing sales will be:
  • Increasing market penetration of core innovations , including HeiQ Fresh AIR (developed for a leading Swedish home furnishing retailer); HeiQ Smart Temp (used by Japan’s biggest casual wear retailer and American clothing brand, Hanesbrands Inc.) and HeiQ Clean Tech (given the Swiss Environmental Award in 2019).
  • Building on the significant momentum achieved by HeiQ Viroblock: developing HeiQ’s licensing and royalty business, which will see the brand name HeiQ Viroblock licensed together with the technology to third parties in return for royalty payments.
  • Developing new disruptive innovations: numerous projects in the R&D pipeline, including HeiQ GrapheneX for industrial filtration. The industrial filtration market was over $29 billion in 2020 – CAGR of 6.9% from the period of 2020 to 2025.
• On Admission, the Company will have 125,891,904 ordinary shares in issue and a market capitalisation of £141 million at the placing price of 112p.

HeiQ Co-Founder & CEO Carlo Centonze said,

“Today’s listing is a major milestone for HeiQ, and we are delighted to welcome our new investors aboard the ship. We have spent the past 15 years building HeiQ to become one of the leading textile materials innovators in the world, and the cash generative, high margin profile of our business demonstrates the success we have experienced.

“The fundraise will enable HeiQ to build on the significant momentum achieved so far in 2020. There are many opportunities to capture more market share through increased sales of our core products to major brands. These have grown 17% in the first half of the year and, in parallel, we have entered lucrative new markets with additional high margin innovations.

“The antimicrobial market, which has grown into a mainstream request, also presents a compelling growth opportunity going forward. The launch of HeiQ Viroblock more than doubled HeiQ’s revenue in the first half of 2020. We look forward to innovating the antimicrobial field and regularly updating the market regarding new partnerships and contracts in the future.

“We are in a robust financial position with a healthy balance sheet and revenue. We have been cash-generative for many years. The business has substantial IP, technology and regulatory permits which create strong barriers to entry. Management holds almost a quarter of the shares and are fully aligned with our original shareholders. Our brand equity has experienced strong growth which will likely lead to further requests by consumers. In summary, we believe the months and years ahead look bright for the enlarged group.”