Provexis confident despite fall in revenue, wider loss

(Sharecast News) - Provexis reported a fall in interim revenue and a wider underlying operating loss for the six months ended 30 September on Wednesday, reflecting temporary supply disruption, while highlighting strong post-period demand and progress across its strategic partnerships.

The AIM-traded functional food ingredients group, which develops and licenses the Fruitflow heart-health ingredient, posted total revenue of �0.36m for the period, down from �0.79m a year earlier.

Revenue included �0.3m from Fruitflow II SD, compared with �0.73m in the prior year, and �0.06m from Fruitflow+ Omega-3, broadly flat with the previous figure.

Provexis said sales were held back in August and September after a delay to a new production run of Fruitflow II SD, which was completed in October, two months later than planned, after all remaining inventory purchased from Dsm-firmenich in 2023 and 2024 had been sold.

Underlying operating losses for the period widened to �0.16m from �0.1m a year earlier, defined as loss from operations adjusted for non-cash share-based payments.

The company said it had since taken orders for, and sold, several hundred thousand pounds of Fruitflow II SD after the period ended and was handling numerous sales enquiries from existing and new customers for deliveries in 2026 and beyond.

In response, Provexis said it was planning at least three further production runs of Fruitflow II SD over the next 12 months, with the first currently expected to be delivered in February.

The group said its long-term commercial partnership with Dsm-firmenich progressed well during the period, supported by continuing interest from significant global customers.

It said the collaboration covered a premix and market-ready solutions supply agreement for Fruitflow II SD, as well as the use of Fruitflow to deliver health benefits linked to modulation of the human gut microbiome.

Provexis also reiterated the strategic importance of its relationship with Byhealth, the Chinese dietary supplements group, which was planning to launch Fruitflow-based products in China.

It said Byhealth was continuing to work on an extensive regulatory submission to China's SAMR aimed at establishing a new permitted health function claim for foods with an anti-platelet effect, noting that Byhealth had publicly stated it had invested "tens of millions of funds" in renminbi in research and development.

Provexis said potential sales volumes from the Chinese market remained a significant multiple of existing Fruitflow sales, although the timing of approvals remained commercially sensitive.

"The company is pleased to report on another strong period of progress," said chief executive Ian Ford.

He added that the DSM partnership "has progressed well during the period, with continuing interest from some significant global customers," and reiterated the strategic scope of the collaboration across both supply agreements and microbiome applications.

On China, Ford said Provexis had been working with Byhealth for more than nine years and that the project, while confidential, was "commercially sensitive and potentially transformative."

Ford also highlighted the group's intellectual property position, noting that Provexis owns four existing patent families for Fruitflow, with a new microbiome patent application potentially extending protection to 2042.

He said the intellectual property portfolio was "of fundamental importance to the company and its current and future commercial partners," underpinning ongoing and future commercial opportunities.

Looking ahead, Provexis said it expected recent changes to its sales and supply chain structure, progress on the microbiome patent and partnership with DSM, and regulatory developments in China with Byhealth to have a strongly positive effect on its commercial prospects, with the board remaining positive on the outlook for the coming year and beyond.

At 0825 GMT, shares in Provexis were up 10.27% at 0.93p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.