There will be an analyst meeting held today at 10am at Buchanan. Running in parallel with the analyst meeting will be a live webcast. Please log on 10 minutes before the start of the webcast at (09:50am GMT). The webcast log on address is:http://mediaserve.buchanan.uk.com/2012/angle260112/registration.asp.

A recording of the webcast will also be made available on ANGLE's website (www.ANGLEplc.com) following the results meeting.

ANGLE plc ("ANGLE" or "the Company")

Interim Results for the six months ended 31 October 2011

PARSORTIX AND OTHER PORTFOLIO COMPANIES PROGRESSING STRONGLY

ANGLE plc (AIM: AGL), which focuses on the commercialisation of technology, today announces unaudited interim results for the six months ended 31 October 2011.   

Operational Highlights

Parsortix Cancer Diagnostics

·     During the half year, ANGLE increased its holding in Parsortix to 90%.

·     The Parsortix separation technology, already proven for foetal cells, was successfully used to capture cultured cancer cells added to healthy blood (spiked blood) and ANGLE initiated a product development programme for a cancer diagnostic device to capture circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in cancer patient blood. 

·     The Parsortix separation device successfully captured cultured breast cancer cells, prostate cancer cells and lung cancer cells in spiked blood, offering the potential for a simple, effective and affordable technique, irrespective of cancer type, for early detection of cancer, monitoring of cancer patients during treatment, and post-treatment monitoring of cancer patients in remission.

·     The US Patent Office granted Parsortix a US patent on its separation technology and patents are pending in all major economic territories worldwide. 

·     Parsortix established its first research partnership, with the University of Surrey's Oncology Department. 

·     As announced on 23 January 2012, Parsortix has recently demonstrated the Parsortix separation device's capability to capture CTCs in cancer patient blood. Development of the Parsortix separation technology is proceeding to plan and the next key milestones are on track.      

Other portfolio companies

·     Geomerics (33%) (computer games middleware and computer graphics): Geomerics' Enlighten technology is now being employed in 20 titles worldwide and is currently in evaluation for many more. Geomerics has secured sales in Korea and Japan and is an integrated partner for Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3.  There was wide acclaim for the major titles, Battlefield 3 and Need for Speed: The Run, which have recently been released using Enlighten.

·     Novocellus (92%) (IVF embryo viability) Novocellus' product EmbryoSure^® offers the potential for increased pregnancy rates in IVF.  As announced today, ANGLE has negotiated new terms with ORIGIO to accelerate the progress of the EmbryoSure^® product to market and has increased its holding of Novocellus to 92%.  See separate release.   

Financial Highlights

·     After a planned increase in ventures and controlled investments costs, primarily in relation to Parsortix, to £0.5 million and an impairment of the holding value for the Acolyte Biomedica earn-out, of £1.3 million, the loss before tax was £1.8 million (H1 2011: profit £0.1 million).

·     Cash balance increased to £1.1 million at 31 October 2011 (30 April 2011: £0.6 million). 

·     Fundraising completed during the half year of £1.25 million. 

·     Further fundraising of £1.2 million announced today.  See separate release. 

Garth Selvey, Chairman, commented:

"ANGLE is entering an important period for value enhancement.  Each of its three major investments has the potential to deliver strong shareholder returns.  The Parsortix opportunity, in particular, is exceptional as it has the potential to provide a simple, effective and affordable solution to a major medical need delivering an important improvement to cancer care."

These Interim Results may contain forward looking statements. These statements reflect the Board's current view, are subject to a number of material risks and uncertainties and could change in the future. Factors which could cause or contribute to such changes include, but are not limited to, the general economic climate and market conditions, as well as specific factors relating to the financial or commercial prospects or performance of individual portfolio companies within the Group's portfolio of investments.

For further information:

CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT

Introduction

The first six months of the year saw significant developments.  There was a major step forward in ANGLE's Parsortix cancer diagnostic subsidiary and good progress elsewhere in the portfolio.

Additional funding has been raised to develop the portfolio further and progress has been encouraging.

ANGLE has three major investments under development: Parsortix in cancer diagnostics, Novocellus in IVF embryo viability and Geomerics in computer graphics.  Each one of these has the potential to deliver exceptional returns. 

Results

The loss before tax of £1.8 million (H1 2011: profit £0.1 million) reflects:

·     a planned increase in ventures and controlled investments costs, primarily in relation to Parsortix, to £0.5 million (H1 2011: £0.3 million); and

·     an impairment of the holding value for the Acolyte Biomedica earn-out, following the Court judgement, of £1.3 million (H1 2011: fair value gain on investments £0.2 million). 

During the half year, the cash balance increased to £1.1 million at 31 October 2011 (30 April 2011: £0.6 million). 

Share issues

A fundraising completed during the half year raised £1.25 million to strengthen the Company's balance sheet and allow the Company to progress Parsortix. 

Subsequent to the half year-end, announced today, shareholders and new investors have agreed a further fundraising of £1.2 million, conditional on HMRC Advance Assurance and AIM listing of shares issued.  Funds raised are intended principally to support ongoing development of the Parsortix cancer diagnostic product and to provide funding for the revitalised Novocellus agreement with ORIGIO. 

Portfolio companies

ANGLE has made substantial progress with its portfolio during the half year.

The Parsortix cancer diagnostic device has been validated using spiked blood for three major cancers (breast cancer, prostate cancer and lung cancer) and has successfully captured circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in experiments with cancer patient blood, paving the way for the work needed to develop a product for research purposes.

Geomerics has succeeded in strengthening the sales of its Enlighten product in the market, with sales to leading computer games publishers.  Geomerics' Enlighten lighting solution was incorporated in two of the year's most successful computer games Battlefield3 and Need for Speed: The Run and received critical acclaim.

Announced today, ANGLE has successfully negotiated new terms with ORIGIO to kick-start the retrospective study for Novocellus' EmbryoSure^®, which offers the potential for increased pregnancy rates in IVF and reduced health risks. 

More details of progress are given in the Operations Summary.

Outlook for the full financial year

ANGLE is entering an important period for value enhancement.  Each of its three major investments has the potential to deliver strong shareholder returns.  Funding has been secured to cover the next stage of development, which, if successful, should lead to an overall reduction in project risk and a substantial increase in shareholder value. 

The Parsortix opportunity, in particular, is exceptional as it has the potential to provide a simple, effective and affordable solution to a major medical need delivering an important improvement to cancer care.        

Garth Selvey

Chairman

25 January 2012

OPERATIONS SUMMARY

Introduction

During the half year, ANGLE progressed its portfolio companies through key milestones and developed a major opportunity in cancer diagnostics. 

Portfolio value

ANGLE's portfolio of investments comprises Geomerics, which is shown on the statement of financial position at a fair value of £2.4 million at 31 October 2011 (30 April 2011: £2.4 million) and NeuroTargets, Novocellus and Parsortix, which as controlled investments are consolidated and are excluded from the fair value of the investment portfolio. 

Parsortix (90%) (cancer diagnostics)

Parsortix has developed an innovative cell separation platform technology for the isolation of cells in blood, including cells which occur in very low numbers.

This technology was previously proven in the separation of intact foetal cells from peripheral maternal blood and is now being developed by ANGLE as a cancer diagnostic tool for the capture of circulating tumour cells in cancer patient blood.

During the half year, ANGLE increased its holding in Parsortix to 90% and made substantial progress, as follows:

·     The Parsortix separation technology was successfully used to capture cultured cancer cells added to healthy blood (spiked blood) and ANGLE initiated a product development programme for a cancer diagnostic device to capture circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in cancer patient blood. 

·     The Parsortix separation device successfully captured cultured breast cancer cells, prostate cancer cells and lung cancer cells in spiked blood, offering the potential for a simple, effective and affordable technique, irrespective of cancer type, for early detection of cancer, monitoring of cancer patients during treatment, and post-treatment monitoring of cancer patients in remission.

·     The US Patent Office granted Parsortix a US patent on its separation technology and patents are pending in all major economic territories worldwide. 

Since the period end, Parsortix has continued to make strong progress including:

·     establishing its first research partnership, with the University of Surrey's Oncology Department; and

·     successfully capturing CTCs in experiments with cancer patient blood, demonstrating the Parsortix device's capability to separate patient blood and its potential for clinical use. 

The Parsortix separation device captures cells based on their physical characteristics.  We believe Parsortix's technology has the potential to be both significantly cheaper and more effective than identified competitor products, which utilise antibody affinity capture.

Antibody affinity capture technology requires advance knowledge of the cancer that the patient is suffering in order that the specific antibody for that particular cancer can be used.  It is subject to false negatives (i.e. failing to identify CTCs when they are present in the blood sample) where there is a weak epithelial marker and it cannot be used at all in cases, such as ovarian cancer, where there is no established antibody for the cancer.

The Parsortix separation technology is not dependent on antibody affinity capture.   It offers the potential to capture CTCs, without knowing in advance which cancer is to be identified and regardless of whether there is a strong epithelial marker or not, or whether there is an identified antibody for the particular cancer. 

The Parsortix separation technology offers the potential for a CTC isolation, capture and characterisation device, irrespective of cancer type for: 

·     Early detection of cancer;

·     Monitoring of cancer patients during treatment; and

·     Post-treatment monitoring of cancer patients in remission.

The next key milestones for the development of the Parsortix CTC separation technology are:

·     Validation of the separation device for other cancer types, particularly those where the existing antibody affinity capture technology is unable to capture CTCs, such as ovarian cancer;

·     The optimisation of the separation device to allow its easy use in the laboratory addressing critical factors of increasing the volume of blood that can be screened and the speed of blood flow through the device; and

·     Independent third party validation of the performance of the Parsortix CTC separation device by leading cancer research centres.

Once these milestones have been achieved, the aim is to launch a CTC capture product for research purposes, which does not require regulatory approval.  Potential customers are major cancer research centres investigating the development of cancer and pharmaceutical companies developing new cancer drugs.

Thereafter it is intended that the research product will be subjected to comparative studies with the established antibody based detection techniques with a view to securing CE Marking in Europe and FDA approval in the United States to allow the launch of a clinical product to be used in the treatment of cancer patients worldwide. 

Other portfolio companies

Geomerics (33%) (computer games middleware and computer graphics)

During the half year, Geomerics continued to make good progress.  Sales continued to grow at an encouraging rate. Geomerics' Enlighten technology is now being employed in 20 titles worldwide (including Electronic Arts' Battlefield 3 and Need for Speed: The Run) and is currently in evaluation and under consideration for many more. Geomerics has secured sales with leading games developers in Korea and Japan and is an integrated partner for Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3.  Geomerics' Enlighten engine empowers game developers by providing the ability to update all aspects of indirect lighting in real time, in game, on PC and console. Enlighten is optimised to run on Playstation®3, Xbox 360™ and PC. It is available as a stand-alone product, or pre-integrated into UE3.  Finally, Geomerics has been awarded European grant funding to research applications of its technology on mobile devices.

Novocellus (92%) (IVF embryo viability)

Novocellus has agreed a partnership with ORIGIO, a leading supplier of specialised IVF products, to bring its embryo selection product, EmbryoSure^® to market.  ORIGIO then have the right to license the EmbryoSure^® IP in exchange for milestone payments and a royalty on future sales.  Novocellus' product EmbryoSure^® offers the potential for increased pregnancy rates in IVF and reduced health risks. 

As announced today, ANGLE has negotiated new terms with ORIGIO to accelerate the progress of the EmbryoSure^® product to market and ANGLE has also increased its ownership of Novocellus to 92% (see separate release).  ANGLE will share the financial risk of the retrospective study and development of the analysis module with ORIGIO up to a maximum of £0.5 million on condition that the study is progressed without undue delay and, once CE marking is obtained, the product is launched in the UK market.  Both parties have the option to review their continuing involvement after completion of the retrospective study.  All rights will revert to Novocellus if ORIGIO do not progress the product rapidly to the next stage of development. 

Novocellus has the potential for milestone payments of up to £4.5 million and royalty income of up to 25% on EmbryoSure^® sales.  The retrospective study is now expected to be completed mid-year 2013.  ANGLE has allocated funding from the fundraising announced today to cover its contribution to the costs.

NeuroTargets (65%) (neuropathic pain, Alzheimer's and multiple sclerosis)

NeuroTargets has through Professor David Wynick's research at the University of Bristol had positive pre-clinical results for the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) and Alzheimer's disease (AD).  NeuroTargets has secured a granted patent in Australia for the use of galanin to treat MS and AD and applications in other territories are ongoing.  NeuroTargets has long term potential that requires partnering.  Whilst ANGLE is not currently providing any significant investment, Professor Wynick is working with the Medical Research Council seeking to progress these opportunities.

*Percentage shareholdings based on issued share capital as at 31 October 2011, with the exception of Novocellus, which was 82% at 31 October 2011. 

Other receivables

ANGLE has deferred consideration due in respect of the sale of its investment in Acolyte Biomedica (medical diagnostics / MRSA detection), which is subject to dispute between the former Acolyte shareholders and the purchaser.  During the half year, legal action undertaken by the major former Acolyte shareholder (the claimant) completed.  The judge found in favour of the claimant that the purchaser was "in breach of its obligation diligently to seek regulatory approval for BacLite in the US" and "in material breach of its obligation actively to market [BacLite]".

There is now the potential for ANGLE to pursue its own claim against the purchaser.  However the damages award was lower than expected and may be subject to appeal.  We have impaired the value held in Other Receivables to reflect the damages award but intend to await any possible further developments, prior to seeking settlement by the purchaser of our outstanding earn-out.

ANGLE made the decision not to commit capital to pursue this case and we are therefore not subject to any legal costs.  ANGLE's business plan is not dependent on this settlement and any payment from the purchaser would be additional to current cashflow plans.

Management services

As highlighted in the Company's recent reports, the Management services business has been constrained by Government cut backs.  It has however remained profitable throughout and made a modest profit of £0.04 million in the period (H1 2011: £0.2 million).

There are now some encouraging signs that the market may be beginning to improve.

Summary

Each of ANGLE's major investments offer the potential for substantial return.

Parsortix and Novocellus have patent-protected products targeting highly attractive medical markets whilst Geomerics is a revenue generating computer graphics focused business.

This diversification protects against the risk associated with any single investment.