Four AIM company chiefs interviewed

AIM was designed for companies like these four small-caps involved in cutting edge technology, mining, global events and cancer treatment. Here's what they just told us.

Arena Events Group

Temporary physical structures, seating, ice rinks, furniture and interiors for major global events.

Chief executive Greg Lawless:

Arena Events Group provides temporary infrastructure for any kind of live event, sporting, non-sporting.  And we work with some of the most well-known and prestigious sporting organisations, venues, rights holders, brand holders.  And we work with them to create from concept right through to delivery, anything that’s required to put on a live event.

We're one of a handful of international players, but not withstanding that, we're only £150 million revenue business.  Our plan is to grow that business from 150 to almost 500 million over the next three to five years.  

There will be organic growth, there will be acquisitions in there.  And we already have identified a lot of these opportunities where we can bolt on additional businesses into each depo to make where we say 'make what we own better' by providing more product. And in doing that we do two things, we get extra revenue, but we also get extra operational efficiencies.

Maxcyte Inc

Revenue generating supplier of cell engineering tech to biotech & pharma firms.  It is also developing CARMA, its unique and proprietary CAR therapy platform in immune-oncology.

Chief executive Doug Doerfler:

I'm delighted to update you on the progress of MaxCyte.  We announced our training update this week.  We increased revenues by 11.6% compared to the first half of 2017.

Our underlying business was actually increased by 14.7%.

We also announced the increase in the number of cell therapy partnerships from 50 to over 55.  This is where our technology is licensed to companies who are developing cell therapies, this is taking cells from a patient, engineering those cells, return to the patient.  The indications include many oncology indications.

We also announced a major milestone for the company, and that is the US Food and Drug Administration cleared our investigation on the drug application, it's called an IND, to begin to dose other people with our product.

Our first product is called MCY-M11.  It's a rapid manufactured messenger RNA-based CAR therapy, directed towards solid tumours. Our first indications will be for platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, and also for peritoneal mesothelioma.

Allergy Therapeutics

Revenue generating developer and distributor of allergy vaccines.

Chief executive Manual Llobet:    

We (Allergy Therapeutics) have moved forward on the three pillars of our strategy.  First of all our European business is progressing well.  Once again we have outperformed the market.  We have taken one additional market share.  Our reported growth is about 7% and 3.5 in constant currency, in a weak market, because the pollen season was weak.

The peanut project is in its phase to produce the vaccine at an industrial scale.  We expect to get into humans next year with the first phase one study.

The Acarovac, which is the vaccine for house dust mites, also within these ultra short concept is progressing well.  We are finishing the phase one, and we expect to start phase two next year.

The Birch 301 study has been completed, and we are now expecting to read out before the end of the year.

And finally, the most important success I would say this year, has been the dose finding study for the grass vaccine.  This vaccine will define the dose for the final pivotal phase three.  And this pivotal study will support any European and US findings.

Base Resources Limited

Minerals sands exploration and production.

Managing director Tim Carstens:    

Base Resources is an ASX and AIM listed mineral sands company.  We developed Kenya's first ever large-scale mining project in late 2013, and it's been a very successful development having been brought in on time, on budget, and now operating well in excess of the design criteria for the project.  And it's an extremely profitable operation, and we've got a team that has got a demonstrated track record of success in the development of mineral sand assets.

So we're a very high cash flow business, with an annualised run rate of around that $150 million a year.  It's a very predictable business in that sense, and that has set us up very well to pay down our debt and have ourselves in a sort of financial shape to be able to grow the business.

This is the transcript of a video which appeared on the interactive investor website in November 2018. To watch the original video, please click here.