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Seeing Machines Limited completes premium placing

Last updated: 00:15 23 Mar 2016 AEDT, First published: 18:45 22 Mar 2016 AEDT

Stylised grey picture of a woman's eye in profile
Seeing Machines is a specialist in eye-tracking.

The eye tracking specialist Seeing Machines Limited (LON:SEE) has completed a £6.7mln stock placing at a premium to the existing price that has brought in a new strategic investor.

VS Industry (VSI), one of the world's leading contract manufacturers, has subscribed for shares at 5.199p each, 20% higher than the 30-day weighted price of the stock.

VSI, which will appoint Yong Kang (YK) Ng to the Seeing Machines board, has a number of high profile customers, including posh vacuum maker Dyson.

It employs 11,000 staff and last year posted revenues of £340mln last year.

The cash raised by Seeing Machines will help it “accelerate” its efforts in the automotive industry, where eye-tracking technology will be key to the next-generation semi-autonomous cars.

Currently the company is partnered with Takata, the Japanese auto parts firm, to produce the driver monitoring system that is taken by a number of car makers.

Seeing Machines reckons the VSI tie-up with should also help with the development of its range of Guardian products for the commercial transport industry.

The Malaysian firm, which also has an operation in Hong Kong, has the “broad manufacturing capabilities” the Australia-based firm lacks and “influential transport related contacts”.

Deal accelerates progress

Seeing Machines chairman Terry Winters said: "Their experience in value engineering and volume manufacturing will help guide Seeing Machines as we continue to scale up our business. 

“The funds raised from VSI will allow us to accelerate our momentum in the automotive industry.  There are enormous opportunities at the moment for our technology to become a critical part of the cars of the future. 

“We're continuing to work on how we can best take advantage of those opportunities to maximise value for our shareholders.”

Yet another savvy deal

Broker finnCap said earlier…

This is yet another impressive development partner for Seeing Machines, sitting alongside Caterpillar, General Motors, Takata, Boeing, and Samsung.

VSI’s funding and manufacturing expertise will assist with the continuing development and production of its DSS devices [driver distraction system].

Some dilution is traded for additional funding while the manufacturing business continues to examine options for a spin out to ensure its own long-term funding.

Success in the mining industry

Seeing Machines is a technology company and its assets are primarily the proprietary intellectual property and algorithms that enable facial tracking from video and live camera feeds.

Commercially, these technologies are housed in the driver monitoring systems and the associated software platforms.

The company’s technology is applicable for a very broad range of possible installations, though the driver monitoring devices have so far been the most advanced in terms of commercial development and revenue generation.

The product that has gained the most traction to date is the driver distraction system, used at 45 mining operations worldwide to monitor fatigue of dump truck operators.

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on 25/5/18