Tern PLC: Additional Investment in FundamentalVR

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Tern PLC (TERN) 
Tern PLC: Additional Investment in FundamentalVR 
 
30-Oct-2018 / 07:00 GMT/BST 
Dissemination of a Regulatory Announcement, transmitted by EQS Group. 
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. 
 
30 October 2018 
 
            Tern Plc ("Tern" or the "Company") 
 
            Additional Investment in FundamentalVR 
 
Tern Plc (AIM: TERN), the investment company specialising in the Internet of 
      Things ("IoT"), is pleased to announce that it has made a further GBP1.1 
   million investment in FVRVS Limited ("FundamentalVR" or "Fundamental"), a 
        leading Virtual Reality ("VR") training and data analysis technology 
         platform and one of its existing portfolio companies. Fundamental's 
 award-winning platform combines immersive virtual reality with cutting-edge 
        haptics (the sense of touch) to create low-cost and scalable 'flight 
           simulator' experiences which offer a new way to facilitate skills 
       development for surgeons. This additional investment increases Tern's 
                        holding in FundamentalVR from 18.3% to 34.7%. 
 
   This investment follows Fundamental's recent signing of a three year term 
  joint development agreement with the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education 
  and Research ("the Mayo Clinic"), the U.S. leading academic medical centre 
  which was voted Best Hospital in 2018 U.S. News & World Report rankings of 
 top hospitals in the USA, which will see the two parties collaborating on a 
     range of simulation and education products with an initial focus on the 
  General Surgery area. Additionally, the current release of the Fundamental 
 Surgery platform is now live in the Mayo Clinic's world-renowned simulation 
                        centres located in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota. 
 
     This new alliance is expected to accelerate FundamentalVR's progress in 
 building out its procedures portfolio and enables the FundamentalVR team to 
     have access to leading surgical knowledge as well as 3D modelling, data 
   scientists and simulation specialists at the Mayo Clinic. The Mayo Clinic 
 and FundamentalVR are both ultimately focused on improving patient outcomes 
      and share the belief that the comparative data insight and measurement 
      collected and available through the FundamentalVR platform will have a 
      profoundly positive impact on medical outcomes and products around the 
                        world. 
 
         Under the joint development agreement, the Mayo Clinic will receive 
       royalties on the sale of jointly developed licensed products and will 
       receive other consideration from FundamentalVR upon achieving certain 
                        milestones. 
 
       FundamentalVR's current revenues from its existing procedures and its 
  pipeline of new procedures are expected to accelerate through the addition 
     of new procedures and potential licencing areas emanating from this new 
partnership. Additionally, in the longer term FundamentalVR expects to build 
         additional revenue sources from its data insight, accreditation and 
       licensing of the development assets in complementary medical markets. 
 
    Based on FundamentalVR's latest statutory accounts for the year ended 31 
  December 2017, FundamentalVR had net assets of GBP886,019 and a loss for the 
                         year of GBP247,921. 
 
  Tern CEO, Al Sisto, said, "FundamentalVR has proven its agility to rapidly 
 deliver on its strategy since our initial investment. We are really pleased 
  to provide this follow-on investment in this innovative company. They have 
    an ambitious strategy, forward revenue visibility and now, a prestigious 
            content partner that recognises the ability of their platform to 
    revolutionise surgical training and ultimately, patient outcomes. We are 
   pleased with their execution and the value it is creating in the business 
          and therefore delighted to have increased our ownership position." 
 
 This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 
                        of EU Regulation 596/2014. 
 
            **ENDS** 
 
Enquiries 
 
Tern plc                          Via Redleaf 
 
Al Sisto, CEO 
 
Sarah Payne, Finance Director 
 
Allenby Capital Limited           Tel: [phone] 
 
(Nomad and Joint broker) 
 
David Worlidge/Alex Brearley 
 
Whitman Howard                    Tel: [phone] 
 
(Joint broker) 
 
Nick Lovering/Christopher Furness 
 
Redleaf Communications            Tel: [phone] 
 
PR 
 
Elisabeth Cowell/ Fiona Norman 
 
ISIN:          GB00BFPMV798 
Category Code: MSCH 
TIDM:          TERN 
LEI Code:      2138005F87SODHL9CQ36 
Sequence No.:  6362 
EQS News ID:   739115 
 
End of Announcement EQS News Service 
 
 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 30, 2018 03:02 ET (07:02 GMT)