(AOF) – The Aton group, listed under the name Hybrigenics, lost 27.69% this midday to 0.0188 euros after the announcement of the postponement of its objectives “due in particular to an unfavorable economic context and difficulties which slow down the development of its subsidiaries. The objective of 60 million euros in turnover by 2025 is thus “postponed to a later financial year”. In 2024, the Aton Group is targeting growth in its activity “less sustained than the expected level and which should not allow the achievement of operational balance” due to the maintenance of several investments.
The Aton Group, as a holding company, has no operational activity but holds a debt of 4.9 million euros on its subsidiary Stemcis and a debt of 2 million euros towards its shareholder DMS Group. During 2023, the Aton Group initiated several discussions with investment funds in order to raise funds to accelerate the development of its subsidiaries.
The group affirms that it has “received several letters of intent, some of which are currently the subject of discussions”, but that “the realization of these investments remains uncertain and does not allow, at present , the acceleration of the development of subsidiaries”.
Stemcis, a historic subsidiary wholly owned by the group, is currently seeing its turnover decline sharply, following delays in the supply of raw materials and the global slowdown in so-called comfort surgical operations. As of June 30, 2023, Stemcis’ financial debt stood at 5.1 million euros, including 4.9 million euros in associate current account for the benefit of the Aton Group.
Inoviem scientific, 47% owned by the group, also saw its activity significantly slowed down by a difficult start to the year for its clients. The company, which carries out outsourced research on behalf of players in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, has suffered the withdrawal of investment funds from financing the development of drug candidates. This cascading effect has impacted the company’s activity, which should record a turnover of around 750,000 euros in 2023 (compared to 840,000 euros in 2022). However, the order book currently stands at 1.5 million euros, which allows us to project significant growth for the year 2024.
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