Novacyt Raises €2.2M to Accelerate NOVAprep Launch in China and Announces Strong First Quarter Sales Growth

Novacyt (ALTERNEXT: ALNOV), an international specialist in cancer and infectious disease diagnostics, today announces a private equity placement financing of €2.2m. This new financing will be used to accelerate the launch of NOVAprep® into China with its distribution partner Leica Biosystems, now scheduled for Q2 2015. This follows the successful financing of €3.1m in December 2014. Additionally, the Company is pleased to announce that 2015 sales are ahead of management expectations.

This latest financing attracted support from current investors including Alto Invest and Novacyt is delighted to receive investment from a new investor, Nyenburgh of Amsterdam. Under the terms of the financing, investors in this round will receive 442,000 of new Novacyt shares which were submitted to the Alternext Paris.

The share capital of Novacyt following the capital increase will amount to €447,514.86 representing 6,712,723 shares with a nominal value of 1/15th of a euro each. The dilution resulting from the capital raise is 6.6% compared to the 6,270,723 shares currently outstanding. The new shares will be listed on Alternext Paris and rank Pari Passu with existing shares under ISIN code FR0010397232.

The capital raise was launched immediately following the significant announcement of the distribution partnership with Leica Biosystems for Greater China last month. Launch plans are progressing better than plan and it is expected the NOVAprep® technology platform will be launched in China during Q2 2015. This is ahead of the previously announced launch date of the second half of 2015. The use of proceeds will be to purchase stock and investment in infrastructure to support the launch with Leica Biosystems.

Additionally, Novacyt is pleased to announce a solid financial start to 2015 with sales across the Group exceeding management expectations and showing overall sales growth of 30% compared to the same three month period of 2014. Sales of NOVAprep® are actually showing growth of 37% compared to the first quarter of 2014 with very strong growth from international markets.

The recent successful fundraising reflects a growing interest and confidence shown by investors in the Company. With continued strong revenue growth and the pending launch into Greater China, Novacyt is well positioned for a strong 2015. Novacyt, with its proprietary NOVAprep® technology platform is also well positioned to exploit the opportunity presented by the highly attractive cancer and diagnostics markets.

Graham Mullis, Group CEO of Novacyt, commented:

"I am delighted with the strong progress that is being made across the business and this is reflected in the solid sales performance in the first quarter of 2015. This additional fundraising has been as a direct result of the accelerated launch plans for Greater China through our distribution partner Leica Biosystems. The pending transformational launch and the strong sales of the first quarter, which are ahead of management expectations, will make 2015 a very busy year for Novacyt. We look forward to updating the market of our progress on the roll-out of NOVAprep® in the very near future.”

Novacyt was advised by Stifel to conduct this financing.