Ananda Developments Plc (AQSE:ANA) finance director Jeremy Sturgess-Smith tells Proactive's Stephen Gunnion that the company's graduation to the senior Apex segment of the Aquis Stock Exchange Growth Markets marks a significant milestone, reflecting its adherence to strict corporate governance rules and increased market confidence.
Proactive: Hello, you're watching Proactive London. I'm joined by Jeremy Sturgess-Smith, finance director at Ananda Developments. Jeremy, good morning, and positive news to start the week. Trading in your shares graduated to the senior apex segment of the Aquis Stock Exchange growth markets. So what does this reflect about the company?
Jeremy Sturgess-Smith: Well, hi Stephen, it's a great mark of our progress over the past four or five years, even six years since our IPO onto Aquis, what was NEX at the time. It shows that we have the ability to abide by some very strict corporate governance rules. And obviously, there's been a good uplift in our share price recently. So the market is showing faith in us and in our strategy, which has allowed us to make this step onto Apex.
Proactive: And of course, there are much stricter eligibility criteria, Jeremy; for instance, a market cap of at least £10 million, 25% of your stock must be in public hands. So you've really grown, and you fit all these criteria now, don't you?
Jeremy Sturgess-Smith: Absolutely. I think the ones that are really key for us in terms of a governance perspective are the need for two independent Non-Executive Directors. Being able to have John Tracy and Professor Clive Page on board, two very impressive men, if I do say so myself, and showing faith in our business and giving us that seal of approval is really great for us. And also, being fully paid-up members of the QCA Corporate Governance Code and sticking to that is a strong sign of the fact that we think corporate governance is very valuable and important as a public company.
Proactive: Jeremy, it also provides your investors with more comfort, I'm sure. So what does this open you up to, I mean, trading in your shares?
Jeremy Sturgess-Smith: I think initially some increased visibility. Through Aquis being on Apex, that does open up some more visibility. We would hope to see more liquidity in the stock, given the higher level of corporate governance that we now have to abide by, which should hopefully give investors more comfort in us as a going concern. Also, we can now more easily have our shares dual listed on other trading platforms. Specifically, I think for us, we are looking towards the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Germany is a market with a very strong medical cannabis industry, and so we believe that there could be some significant investor appetite for our shares in that market. And also, of course, we will be looking towards the OTCQB in New York. That might be a bit more of a long-term strategy. However, as a drug development company and specifically a company that's looking at chronic pain, America is absolutely a market we're targeting for the long term.
Proactive: So, Jeremy, just maybe give us an update on the developments of the company and the progress you're making with your phase two clinical trials, as well as that MRX1 study using mice.
Jeremy Sturgess-Smith: Sure. Charles Morgan, our chairman, had a good conversation with Professor Cherry Wainwright, who's part of the team at Robert Gordon University, on that HFpEF trial that I spoke to you about late last month. The current work is to assess how and where we are best to increase the scale of the second follow-up pre-clinical trial that I mentioned. But what we really need to think quite hard about here is setting some endpoints and top data targets for this expanded trial, to reflect in mice similar endpoints that we've been looking for in a human study, to ensure that there's good translation from pre-clinical into our clinical work. In terms of our two phase-two studies, we're still on track and on time to begin dosing later this year. The next steps and what we're working towards at the moment are discussions with the MHRA, ethics submissions, and then finishing off our stability work and beginning to manufacture a batch for the CIPN first and then endometriosis.