Dunedin biotech company Blis Technologies has forecast its annual losses for the current financial year will balloon from an earlier estimate of $800,000 to $1.3 million for its full-year trading ending next March.
In giving the market guidance yesterday, it announced it would be seeking funding from a share-purchase plan to shareholders, to be released next month, and said a further capital-raising from a pro rata issue to shareholders "would likely be required" in 2014.
Blis has developed a range of oral probiotics for sore throats, bad breath and to boost health after taking antibiotics, its products selling in markets including New Zealand, Australia and Asia.
Company director Bevan Wallace said the increased loss was because of a United States-based formulator suspending promotion and sales of a product using its Blis K12 and Blis M18 ingredients, the deferral of a product launch in China of Blis K12 and a supply review by a distributor.
"These adverse events have unfortunately overshadowed the progress achieved by Blis and Stratum Nutrition in the Asian and European markets in recent months," Mr Wallace said in a statement.
Blis has booked eight consecutive annual losses totalling almost $8 million, including its largest loss of $1.7 million for the year to March 2012 - warning shareholders at the time to expect two consecutive losses.
While alternative capital-raising and licensing options had been reviewed, the board considered none of those proposals to be sufficiently advanced to provide the funding certainty required, prompting the need to launch a share-purchase plan and the placement, Mr Wallace said.
