Calcivis Limited, an Edinburgh company developing dental diagnostic technology, has entered administration, with The Herald reporting that all jobs have been lost.
David McGinness and Judith Howson of AAB Business & Tax Advisory were appointed joint administrators of the company on 23 September in the Court of Session. Calcivis is based at the Edinburgh BioQuarter at Little France.
According to The Herald, the administrators said that “despite the progress made by the business and the quality of its underlying technology, the company was unable to bridge to profitability sufficiently quickly and continued to experience pressure on cashflow”.
A spokesperson for the administrators told The Herald: “Prior to the appointment, the directors undertook an accelerated marketing process to seek a sale of the business and assets. While there was interest in the company and its technology, no deliverable solvent sale or funding solution was capable of being completed within the available timeframe.
“Mindful of their duties and responsibilities to creditors, the directors therefore took the difficult decision to cease to trade and seek the appointment of administrators.”
The company had both public and private backing. The Herald reported that the Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB) committed £5m to Calcivis, of which £4.6m was drawn down, and that £4.5m of the bank’s exposure was accounted for in its recent annual report.
In Case You Missed It:
An SNIB spokesperson said, as reported by The Herald: “Risk is inherent in all investments, and as Scotland’s development bank, we were mandated to take on higher risk than other commercial investors in order to fill an identified gap in the Scottish funding landscape. Some failures are inevitable, and our strategy is based on the entire portfolio over the long term.”
