31 March 2025

Metir plc

("Metir" or the "Company")

Operational Update

Metir plc (AIM: MET), an international developer and provider of testing solutions for unique and underserved public health and environmental markets, is pleased to present an operational update.

The Company is working on the following operational and product development projects in the water and environmental testing markets, focused on generating early revenues and improvements in gross margins.

Qatar project update

The Company is pleased to confirm that full payment has been received from our installation partner Avanceon, for settlement of the first tranche invoice of €228k covering phase one Qatar project installation. The first tranche balance was paid after upgrade and consumable items for the Continuous Toxic Monitoring systems (CTMs) were delivered and are now being installed. The Company has 27 CTMs located at water pumping stations in central Doha and its suburbs that will give a rapid early warning of any toxins present in the water supply enabling fast shutdown if needed. This high-profile project is central to Kahramaa's (the public water utility in Qatar) policy of delivering pure and safe potable water to its customers. Over half of the installed CTMs are fully functioning and commissioning of all installed systems is expected during April, after which a further contracted second tranche payment of €228k is expected by the end of June 2025, signalling the completion of phase one of the project.

The Company is preparing for an expected phase two tender with Kahramaa for a significant number of additional CTMs to service a wider area of Doha. This is expected to be issued later this year after full commissioning of the existing units occurs and management believes it is in a strong position to secure this additional tender due to its unique and proprietary online testing capabilities of its CTMs.

MicroTox® Reagents and Devices

MicroTox® reagents are consumables that the Company manufactures itself in York, England (in both frozen powder and frozen liquid form). MicroTox® is the industry standard water testing reagent brand with MicroTox® LX devices installed in testing laboratories worldwide. The Company is pleased to report it has received an increase to 27 firm orders for MicroTox®LX devices for delivery in H1 2025 that use MicroTox® consumables with increasing enquiries about devices for H2 delivery. This significantly exceeds management's initial forecasts for the year.

As reported previously, the MicroTox® FX device which is handheld for use in the field, is undergoing an upgrade and production of these new units is on track to restart production in April following increasing sales enquiries.

The CTMs when in routine use in Qatar also use deep frozen liquid MicroTox® reagents and other specific consumables supplied by the Company which will generate significant, repeat revenues for the Company.

PFAS Systems

Polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) 'forever chemicals' are a group of manmade chemicals designed to be non-stick, waterproof, and flame-resistant that have been linked to various health problems, including certain cancers which are of major concern in key markets like the US and increasingly so worldwide. The three-and-a-half-year PhD study using the Company's Mass Spectroscopy technology at Swansea University, sponsored by the Company has completed and is due to be published shortly. This will include data demonstrating that the Company's system developed specifically for PFAS testing is world-leading, can detect more than current and conventional techniques and can accurately measure the widest range of PFAS chemicals in soils and water. The Company believes this and other proprietary features gives its technology significant competitive advantages, including mobile on site testing capability and fast results, compared to other PFAS measurement technologies.

In April 2025 testing for PFAS will begin using the Company's system with samples taken from a river in Wales by Swansea University working together with a significant stakeholder in the environmental sector. The Company is pursuing a number of different commercialisation strategies, including partnerships. Accurate monitoring down to the very low levels in environmental legislation is becoming essential and is a legal requirement in many countries particularly in the US.

One of the Company's early interested partners is a world leading major US water safeguarding company and it has rented a unit from the Company, now that the Swansea University preliminary results are known, so that it can test its PFAS technology. The Company expects to report its progress with its PFAS partnerships later this year.

Sulphate Reducing Bacteria Kits

As previously reported, the Company has received significant commercial interest in its Sulphate Reducing Bacteria kits called QuickChek®SRB, and is therefore pleased to report resumption of production of its upgraded QuickChek®SRB kits with sales starting during Q2 2025. These kits are industry leading, allowing customers to get test results within minutes rather than days as with other brands. End customers include Saudi Aramco, enabling them to closely monitor bacterial corrosion in their pipeline systems. Previous QuickChek®SRB sales levels were significant and the Company is planning to grow this market given the increasing supply requests it is receiving.

Business Development

The Company's opportunity pipeline is strong, but with limited working capital headroom, management is cognisent of managing the pace of production scale up. The Company is therefore focusing on near term, regular sales income together with careful, limited longer term project development. In the short-term this means ramping up sales of MicroTox® reagents through the sale of MicroTox® LX, FX and CTMs instruments. In addition, the sales of QuickChek® SRB kits are a simple but important high revenue and high margin generator.

For the longer term the Company sees significant growth for its CTM technologies in major cities across the world as the demand and importance for continuous early warning monitoring of toxins in water grows, including  in new 'smart cities'. These cities and towns typically require the best technology to be installed from the outset for high standards of health and environmental safety. The Company's Tethys Purity® water concept, which is a combination of monitoring and testing technologies, is ideally suited to this growing market. In particular, the Middle East region has substantial growth potential in this area enabling us to build on the Company's success in Doha, Qatar.

The Company is close to completing its smart digital integration capability so that its devices can integrate and communicate remotely to a centralised dashboard for continuous data monitoring and control. This is particularly suitable for integration in its CTMs which will be offered for phase two of the Qatar project and all future projects. The technology is a powerful tool to monitor and record data and has machine learning (AI) capabilities so that data trends can be assessed with predictive capabilities.

The Company has increasing interest and enquiries from industrial companies that use large amounts of water in their processes and also discharge effluent. The Company's unique CTM technology together with a business partner's in-line capability to detect metals in effluent gives the Company a leading-edge and continuous industrial water testing capability  as part of our integrated Tethys Purity ®solution.

We are looking to commercialise our PFAS technology this year with partners after is has been successfully used at Swansea University for over three years with excellent results. Our target market includes major companies specialising in the removal of PFAS chemicals in soils and water which is a rapidly growing market.

The Company also intends to commercialise its unique Pathogen Detector that can detect viruses and other pathogens in water within minutes. This includes the organism Cryptosporidium which can be found in sewage polluted water. There have been major outbreaks reported of this pathogen, only recently in the UK and other countries which has been damaging to public health. The Company is already in discussions with a UK water utility who has recognised the advantages of this prototype device over other methods and ways to fund final development are being considered. The Company is excited by this early interest and will report progress subject to funding.

Cash

With receipt of the Qatar project phase one full payment and the recent receipt of another research and development tax credit, for 2023 expenditure of £112k (an increase above the original £80k estimate) the Company confirms there has been no material change to the cashflow forecasts presented in its H1 2024 Interim Update on 12 November 2024. The Company's current cash balance is £326k and working capital headroom remains dependent on the Company's ability to collect receivables for work performed in a timely manner.

Bob Moore, Metir's Acting Executive Chairman, commented:

"We continue to operate the Company with strong controls over expenditure and I am delighted to report the solid operational progress across all areas of the business. Receiving full payment for phase one of our flagship project in Qatar now enables us to finalise commissioning of this high-profile project which will help springboard the Company to the next level of growth. We have steadily increasing sales in all our product areas, so we are now past the stabilisation phase of the business after integration of the Modern Water asset acquisition, enabling us to move into the growth phase. We look forward to rapidly developing the previously latent potential of the company using our wide-ranging product capabilities, future products near to commercialisation and most importantly all driven by our talented team."

About Metir

Metir is highly experienced in the development, manufacture and supply of microelectronics instrumentation for markets requiring analytical testing in public and environmental health markets. The Company has acquired and integrated the assets of Modern Water with Microsaic Systems' technologies resulting in comprehensive water testing and other toxic testing capabilities including world leading PFAS detection technology. Metir's products and solutions are commercially available through global markets via direct sale and a network of regional and country specific distributors and partners.