A SWEDISH rocket scientist who designed space probes for Nasa will announce plans today to launch his company on London’s junior stock market.
Tom Francke, an astrophysicist who designed instruments that helped Nasa to research “Big Bang” theories in outer space, will become a paper millionaire after the listing on the Alternative Investment Market.
Mr Francke is seeking to raise between £12 million and £14 million as part of the offering in a deal that will value XCounter, his Stockholm-based company, at up to £54 million. The space scientist owns 2 per cent of the business, worth about £1 million. Other members of the management team own a further 1 per cent. The company’s venture-capital backers include Abingworth Investment, the specialist biotech investor, which owns 19 per cent of the business.
XCounter makes digital X-ray machines capable of generating very high quality images in 3D using low doses of radiation.
Demand for better technology comes amid fears that the X-ray machines in use in British hospitals expose patients to unnecessarily high levels of radiation.
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Mr Francke is developing the technology for use in circumstances where healthy people are routinely required to take X-rays, such as breast-screening clinincs. He is also working on variations that can provide real-time 3D images of the heart, as well as bigger scans capable of capturing any organ in the body.
Machines are expected to sell for up to $2.5 million (£1.4 million) each and the company will use proceeds of the sale to finance future development while it seeks a licensing deal with a larger player. The company is understood to be in talks with several potential partners.
Dealings in the company’s shares are expected to begin in the first week of February.