When a company makes a claim that its fabric coating kills all known bacteria and viruses including Covid-19 within 30 minutes and has a shelf-life of up to seven years, it tends to get attention.

The Viroblock product from Swiss-based HeiQ Materials was originally developed as an antimicrobial for the Ebola crisis in 2013 and now it is seeing strong demand following the Covid-19 pandemic.

Investors will soon get a chance to buy its shares as HeiQ is coming to the UK stock market on 7 December via a reverse takeover of cash shell Auctus Growth (AUCT:AIM).

Oliver Brown, fund manager of MFM UK Primary Opportunities (B905T77), told Shares that the founders happened upon the antimicrobial opportunity after completing long walks in the Swiss mountains and getting complaints from their wives about the smelly clothes.

In addition to Viroblock, HeiQ has built a presence in textile performance materials that provide enhanced features such as cooling/heating and water repellence.

It boasts blue chip clients such as Swedish company IKEA, luxury goods brand Burberry (BRBY) as well as performance brands North Face, Champion and New Balance.

RC Brown, Premier Miton and Amati Global Investors are among the institutional investors backing the company at the stock market listing.

Amati fund manager David Stevenson says a key attraction is HeiQ’s intellectual property amassed since 2005 including multiple patents and awards for its innovative technologies.

Based on the £140 million valuation at listing, HeiQ will trade at around 3.5 times sales compared to the 7.1 times of infection prevention specialist Tristel (TSTL:AIM), and 4.4 times for antimicrobial products company Byotrol (BYOT:AIM).

The company is forecast to see annual sales grow by 50% in 2021 slowing to 30% in later years. Profit for the first half of 2020 was $8.6 million.

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