Quarterlytics / Financial Services / Insurance - Life / Independence Holding Co.

Independence Holding Co.

ihc · LSE Financial Services
Claim this profile
Ticker ihc
Exchange LSE
Sector Financial Services
Industry Insurance - Life
Employees 51-200
← All annual reports
FY2019 Annual Report · Independence Holding Co.
Sign in to download
Loading PDF…
Inspiration Healthcare Group plc

2019 Annual

Report
and Financial Statements

2

Our purpose
To improve health outcomes by providing highly advanced medical technology.

Our values
As a Group we strive to meet all of these values:  
Patient focused, Outcome changing, Pioneering, Research driven 

Operational highlights

Launched AlphaCore5 – our new Patient Warming System

Received certification to Medical Device Single Audit Program in  
4 countries (Canada, USA, Japan and Australia) and ISO 13485:2016

Received single largest order for Patient Warming Systems

Strengthened management team with Head of Operations

Licence Agreement signed with a major US university to allow us to 
develop a novel respiratory device (“Project Wave”)

Winner of The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise: International Trade 2019

inspiration-healthcare.comContents

3

Strategic Report

Governance

Financial Statements

Shareholder Information

 87    Other Shareholder 
Information

 88   Advisers

89 

 92 

 Notice of Annual 
General Meeting

 Notes to the Annual 
General Meeting

 31 

 Statement of Corporate 
Governance

 36 

 Audit Committee Report

 38  Board of Directors

40  Directors’ Report

 42 

 45 

 Directors’ Remuneration 
Report

 Statement of Directors’ 
Responsibilities

  4 

 Chairman’s Report

  6 

 Research and 
Development Case Study 
– Critical Care

  8  Our Business Strategy

 15  Our Business Model

16 

22 

 24 

 28 

 Chief Executive 
Office ’s Review

 Research and 
Development Case Study 
– Operating Theatre

 Operating and 
Financial Review

 Principal Risks 
and Uncertainties

 46 

 50 

 50 

 51 

 52 

 Independent 
Auditors’ Report 
 to the Members of  
Inspiration Healthcare Group plc

 Consolidated Income 
Statement 

 Consolidated Statement of 
Comprehensive Income

 Consolidated and 
Company Statements of 
Financial Position

 Consolidated and 
Company Statement of 
Changes in Shareholders’ 
Equity

 54  Consolidated Cash 
Flow Statement

 55 

 Notes forming part of the 
Financial Statements

Financial highlights

Revenue 
stable at

£15.5m

International Sales 
up 12% to

£5.4m

Revenue  
from new products2

£1.4m

EBITDA1 
increased by

13%

Operating Profit 
as expected at

£1.2m

Net Assets 
up by £1.2m 

27%

1 Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and share based payments

2 FY2019 revenue from products launched in the last three years

Gross Margin 
up to 

45.5%

Cash up by 
£0.4m to 

£2.5m

INSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 2019

4

Chairman’s Report

The Group is one full of energy and 
positivity and a desire to make a 
genuine difference to the outcome 
of some of the most fragile patients 
and therefore I am pleased to write 
to you again on another year of 
progress at Inspiration Healthcare 
Group plc. 

For the year ended 31 January 2019  
(“FY2019”), we met our operating 
profit expectations at £1.2 million 
(FY2018: £1.2 million) with 
EBITDA1 improving by 13% from 
£1.45 million to £1.65 million. This 
was achieved through increasing 
gross margin from 44% in FY2018 
to 45% in FY2019, prudent 
management of overheads and the 
timing of investment - balancing the 
impact on profits with the benefit for 
long term growth. Underlying diluted 
Earnings per Share (“EPS”)2 declined 
by 0.06 pence per share, due to a 
slightly higher tax charge.

The Group’s revenue was stable 
at £15.5 million and although this 
is disappointing, it is the first time 
after 15 years of successive revenue 
growth. This needs to be seen in 
the context of the wide changes 
taking place within our industry and 
the current global trade tensions 
and uncertainties. Despite these 
uncertainties it is notable that we 
increased our International revenue 
by 12%. Changing our distributor in 
the USA has had a positive impact 
at the end of the year and we  
expect this new relationship to 
have long term benefits for other 
products that we will seek market 
authorisation for.

The year has also been difficult due 
to the continuing regulatory hurdles 
that are engulfing the industry. It 
has been widely reported by many 
commentators that the regulations 
are changing rapidly and causing 
issues within the industry as a 
whole. As at end of March 2019 
the number of Notified Bodies 
for Medical Devices was 58, 
falling from 75 in 2013, putting 
unprecedented strain on those that 
remain. It is therefore noteworthy 
that we have invested in our staff 
and systems and continue to do so. 
This has put us in a strong position 
to ensure compliance to these new 
regulations and also to minimise the 
impact that Brexit will have on our 
medical devices being placed on the 
market in the UK and in the EU.

We could not have estimated the 
true impact of the regulatory delays 
caused by these changes, the knock-
on effect of registering products, 
supplying customers, and building 
the supply chain. These were greater 
than we first thought. However, 
we have new products launched 
and registered in most key markets 
and have been making plans as to 
how to maximise revenues with our 
distribution partners to make these 
products a success.

Our investment in our management 
team has continued this year to 
create a strong platform for growth. 
Our management team has been 
strengthened with the new position 
of Head of Operations, improving 
our efficiencies in this core area of 
our business as well as putting in 
place the building blocks for further 
expansion. We welcome Nigel 
Weston to the company in this  
new role.

1  Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and share based payments 

2  EPS before significant prior year tax amendments

As an international business 
importing and exporting around the 
world, Brexit took up substantial 
time for contingency planning 
regardless of the outcome. As many 
others have noted, the continued 
lack of clarity on Brexit was 
unhelpful, stretching resources that 
could have been utilised elsewhere 
to the benefit of the business. 
We naturally increased our stock 
holding and worked through 
issues with suppliers, principals 
and distributors alike. We worked 
closely with the Department of 
Health and Social Care ensuring 
that regardless of the outcome we 
would be able to supply the NHS 
with life-saving medical devices. 
We are confident that we have 
done everything we can to prepare 
the Group for any scenario.

Last year we stated that we would 
continue to invest in R&D and we 
have continued to do so. Although 
overall spend declined from 6.2% 
of revenue in FY2018 to 4.1% 
in FY2019 due to capital spend 
being lower because of timing of 
certain projects, I can report that 
we increased our investment in 
in-house R&D staff resources by 
39% in FY2019. Bringing more 
resources in-house will mean we 
are more efficient in the future.

inspiration-healthcare.com5

“ Despite these 
uncertainties it 
is notable that 
we increased our 
International revenue 
by 12%.”

Mark Abrahams  Non-executive Chairman

margins from our new products. 
The new year has started with a 
very healthy order book and we 
look forward to maintaining this 
momentum to deliver double digit 
revenue growth.

Mark Abrahams
Chairman

30th April 2019

Employees

I am proud of the way our staff 
rose to the challenges during the 
year. They tenaciously chased 
opportunities, worked hard to 
realise those that were achievable 
and acted thoroughly professionally 
throughout the difficult times. We 
will continue to invest in our staff 
as our most valuable asset and 
create an environment they can be 
proud to work in. On behalf of the 
Board I thank them sincerely for 
their endeavours. 

Outlook

We now have key new products 
registered in over 40 countries and 
our sales team are working hard 
with our distributors to establish 
these products, further building on 
the current sales that have already 
achieved £1.4 million in FY2019.

We will continue to implement 
our strategy to develop the Group 
into a world leader in Neonatal 
Intensive Care through organic 
growth and acquisitions. The Group 
continues to look for acquisitions 
both of technology / products and 
companies, although it is difficult 
to predict the exact timing of any of 
these opportunities. 

The opportunity from our recent 
licence agreement with a major  
US based university (“Project 
Wave”) is extremely exciting.  
It reflects our approach to 
developing disruptive technologies 
in neonatal intensive care.

We have a strong R&D pipeline 
and with the strengthening of 
management and the accreditation 
to Medical Device Single Audit 
Program (“MDSAP”) and ISO 
13485:2016 we have positive 
times ahead. We expect to benefit 
from the improvement in higher 

INSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 2019Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder Information6

Research and Development Case Study

Critical Care

The Inspire rPAP was conceived in Ostersund, Sweden, by 
Dr Kjell Nilsson (inventor of the fluidic based neonatal nCPAP 
system) and his colleague Dr Thomas Drevhammar. Licensing 
the idea to Inspiration as our first true R&D project, we started 
from scratch building a team with appropriate skills to develop 
potentially life-saving disposable medical devices. The new team 
progressed the development of systems and processes, whilst 
the company invested in CAD and test equipment. 

Additionally, we applied for and won a UK Government grant 
to help the development. Throughout the development process 
the team worked closely with Drs Nilsson and Drevhammar 
to ensure that the performance of the finished product closely 
matched their initial work, thus ensuring that the clinical 
benefits were maintained throughout the design process. After 
much work, validation, external testing, selecting suppliers and 
completing the documentation, the product could be CE marked 
and placed on the market. 

The device is being used in a large clinical trial at the Karolinska 
Institute in Stockholm and is being used routinely in hospitals in 
the UK, Austria, France and Italy as well as being considered  
as the standard of care in hospitals in other countries.  
This physician ‘inspired’ device is a great example of how  
we work with the medical profession to develop novel  
technology that can make a real difference.

Identifying disruptive 
technologies such as 
Inspire rPAP and Project 
Wave gives us an exciting 
competitive advantage.

inspiration-healthcare.com

7

15 million

babies born 
prematurely each 
year world-wide

Global market 
for foetal and 
neonatal medical 
equipment:

US$11.86bn 
by 2022 

Making breathing easier  
by up to 92%

One of the primary 
objectives of Inspire rPAP is 
to reduce the imposed Work 
of Breathing (“iWOB”) to the 
baby during resuscitation. 
iWOB is a measure of the 
added effort the baby must 
make to breathe against the 
respiratory device. A low 
iWOB is important, as it 
helps the baby to preserve 
their valuable energy and 
can help to contribute to a 
positive outcome.

The Inspire rPAP 
significantly reduces the 
iWOB by up to 92%, 
according to a publication1 
in a peer reviewed medical 
journal.

Reference 

1  Donaldsson et al, Arch Dis 

Child Fetal Neonatal Ed.2017 
May;102(3):F203-F207.

Project Wave

We are proud to have licenced the patent rights to develop a novel idea that 
could have a profound effect on the breathing of the newborn. 

Project Wave is based on exciting research from a major university in the 
USA where an eminent professor has found that his discovery potentially 
helps normalise breathing rates, reducing apnoea in the premature baby and 
intermittent hypoxia. Developing the idea further could lead to a change in 
the management of babies who need respiratory support in the neonatal 
intensive care unit.

We first heard about the discovery through our network of contacts in the 
industry and quickly established links with the professor. It soon became 
apparent that, despite not having worked with each other before, there 
was a terrific synergy between our two groups; the researcher pioneering a 
potential revolutionary idea, and Inspiration with our knowledge and passion 
for disruptive technologies for newborns.

Spending time with the University’s technology transfer group was important 
to secure the licence agreement but working in good faith allowed our 
engineers not to waste time and to discuss the product development with the 
research group whilst negotiations were on-going.

Now we are busily refining prototypes and looking forward to planning 
further clinical trials which we hope to start in the next 12 months.

INSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 2019

INSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 2019Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder Information8

Our Business Strategy

Our strategy is to be a world leader 
in Neonatal Intensive Care.

Our ambition is to become a 
£100m revenue business through 
a combination of organic growth, 
acquisitions and leverage.  
We envisage that we will have 
a comprehensive range of 
technology-based products for  
the Neonatal Intensive Care  
Unit (“NICU”). Coupled with this 
we believe it is vital to have direct 
operations in key markets  
although it will be important 
to maintain distribution of key 
products in other markets.

Our Business 

At Inspiration Healthcare Group 
plc, we have always differentiated 
ourselves on our ability to supply 
outcome improving medical devices 
in the areas of neonatal intensive 
care by understanding the patients’ 
needs and identifying technology 
that will make a difference. 

We define our business as being 
patient focused, slightly different 
from customer focus as we strive 
to find and develop products that 
will make a difference to patient 
outcomes. In our business model 
we encapsulate the patient focused 
approach: we think of ourselves 
with a well-defined cash generating 
core business that provides state-of-
the-art medical technology; and an 
element of disruptive technologies 
that could bring about a paradigm 
shift to the way patients are  
treated. This approach is captured 
in Our Business Model schematic on 
page 15. Where geographically we 
do not have a direct sales operation, 
we choose distribution partners who 
have a similar ethos to us, bringing 
together their core values with ours. 

Most of our staff are customer 
facing, in sales, marketing, customer 
service or Technical Support. 

By heavily focusing on our 
customers’ needs we are instantly 
aligned with not only the current 
best practice in the fields we 
operate in, but also their future 
needs. With manufacturing 
outsourced and largely self-
sustaining, we can use our energies 
and resources to find the latest 
technologies to develop into new 
products that will become the norm 
of clinical practice in future years. 

Our Products

When Inspiration Healthcare was 
first started in 2003, the Company 
was a distributor of medical 
products in the UK and Ireland 
and built an enviable reputation for 
customer service. Over the years 
we have changed our product 
portfolio of distributed products. In 
2013 we took the strategic decision 
to commence investment in our 
own product development1, which 
opens up significant opportunities 
in international markets1 as well 
as increase the longevity of the 
products in our portfolio. The 
image on pages 10 and 11 shows 
a representation of this evolution 
towards a company with a range 
of novel technologies, that are 
synergistically used around the 
same call point in neonatology. The 
final piece of the jigsaw is it will 
increase our margins1, which in 
turn will allow further development 
and growth of the Group.

The majority of our Inspiration 
Branded products are used in the 
first few days of life, in fact most 
will be used in the first 6 hours of 
life. It has been part of our strategy 
to focus on this area of clinical need 
as we feel that it is here where 
the right technology can have 
the greatest effect on the patient 
outcome. It motivates our team to 
know we can have a profoundly 
positive impact on a child’s future 
before the first breath of life.

In addition to the neonatal 
products, we have our own brand 
of patient warming system, the 
AlphaCore5, that can be used 
in other parts of the hospital, 
mainly in the operating theatre. 
There is a natural overlap in the 
operating theatres for maternity, 
where pregnant mothers can be 
kept warm, prior to and during 
a caesarean section on our 
AlphaCore5 system. The baby can 
then be delivered onto a LifeStart 
which can benefit from a heated 
mattress from the same system. 

The AlphaCore5 is ideal for the 
entire peri-operative period. 
Keeping patients normothermic 
whilst they undergo surgery is 
complex as well as vital. Patients 
suffering from hypothermia can 
have serious complications which 
will lead to lengthened hospital 
stays thus leading to increased 
costs to the care provider and a 
poorer outcome for the patient. 
We have a pipeline of future 
developments in this field where 
we feel we can add value in 
other areas of the acute setting to 
improve patient outcomes. 

Our product strategy continues to 
build upon that of previous years; 
we will actively look for therapeutic 
solutions with an element of 
capital equipment which we can 
enhance with planned preventative 
maintenance contracts, along 
with complementary consumable 
medical devices.

All of our products in the UK and 
Ireland are supplemented by our 
Technical Support team. Being able 
to offer a comprehensive Technical 
Support programme is essential to 
underpinning our value proposition 
of customer service and patient 
focus. 

inspiration-healthcare.comAnd

Shared Intellectual Property:
›     Products for which we have

exclusive rights which allow us
to export the goods into key
geographies for our business
and are manufactured under
our Inspiration brand. For these
products the design, IP and
regulatory status is owned by a
3rd party with whom we have a
close partnership.

Distributed Products

These are products that do not carry 
the Inspiration brand and for which 
we have an agreed relationship 
with the manufacturer to sell their 
products in certain territories, 
mainly UK and Ireland. These 
products typically earn lower gross 
margins than our branded products 
but need less capital and typically 
generate revenue more quickly. 
Distributed Products complement 
our Inspiration Branded Products 
in the area of critical care and the 
operating theatre and add value 
to our customer proposition as we 
can offer a more comprehensive 
product range. We will continue to 
look opportunistically to add more 
distributed products into our product 
portfolio where they can add value 
to the rest of the product range. 

Additionally, we distribute a range 
of infusion technology products and 
have been highly successful in the 
niche area of parenteral feeding for 
homecare patients in our Domestic 
market. This highly specialised and 
growing area has allowed us to gain 
invaluable experience in a different 
environment and we are looking  
to leverage the other products in 
the range.

The wide range of products ensure 
that our Technical Support team 
have all the skills required to 
support our customers. This also 
gives us the flexibility of adding 
new products into the portfolio 
quickly and efficiently. 

In our product portfolio we have 
both Inspiration Branded and 
Distributed Products and the 
image on pages 10 and 11 shows 
a timeline as to how our product 
portfolio has evolved and the 
revenues we now enjoy from our 
Inspiration branded products.  
It is one of our strategic objectives 
to increase the proportion of 
revenue generated from Inspiration 
Branded products1 and progress 
towards this can be seen in our Key 
Performance Indicators (“KPI’s”) 
set out on page 20. However, it 
is important to remember there 
are a number of benefits on 
maintaining a strong distribution 
portfolio: cash generation, added 
value to customer experience, 
and synergistic products help us 
compete with larger players. 

Inspiration Branded Products 

Inspiration Branded products 
demonstrate our sector expertise 
and allow us broader market 
access. All of these products can 
be used in Neonatal applications 
with the Patient Warming System 
also being able to be used more 
widely in the acute hospital setting. 
Here we have a combination of: 

Own Intellectual Property:
›    Products where we control the

intellectual property, know-how,
manufacturing rights and the
design. This gives us control of
the product design, the costs and
the route to market.

1  A strategic business objective which is 

measured in our Key Performance Indicators 
(“KPI’s”) set out on page 20

9

“ The majority of our 
Inspiration Branded 
products are used in the 
first few days of life.”

Our Technology 

Our investment in R&D1 has 
steadily grown over the past few 
years and we now have a stronger 
team in place to develop the 
technology that we can take to 
market worldwide. There were a 
number of reasons for this, mainly 
regulatory and finalising a licence 
agreement for Project Wave, which 
is described in more detail on pages 
7 and 19. We have concentrated 
our developments in recent years 
on two key areas: Neonatal 
applications where our recently 
launched Inspire rPAP and LifeStart 
focus on the first few moments of 
life; and, our new Patient Warming 
System that can heat up to five 
accessories at one time. Over the 
forthcoming years we will continue 
to invest in our Neonatal range 
to improve outcomes of fragile 
babies and complement this with 
enhancing features of our patient 
warming offering. 

Raising our profile within the 
research community has always 
been something we have done. It 
often follows that product ideas 
come from this extremely well-
informed group of physicians. 

New technology with novel 
features allows us to add to the 
value proposition of our products, 
helping differentiate from our 
competitors and potentially disrupt 
the market. We expect to see 
margin improvements through new 
products and increased growth.

INSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 2019Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder Information10

Evolution not revolution

Our product portfolio 

When Inspiration Healthcare started as a distributor in 2003 it was a long way from where we are now. First year 
revenue was just £630,000, all generated from distributing the products of four principals and entirely in the UK 
and Ireland. We added other principals’ products in the following years.

The plan was always to invest to grow the business in the Domestic market and then leverage our experience and 
knowledge to add products and sell them internationally. Over the last few years we have invested in R&D, Quality 
Assurance & Regulatory Affairs and Marketing resources to ensure that we have the skills to develop and gain 
market access to novel, ground breaking products. We have then continued this investment in International Sales 
Management and Logistics to realise the benefits of these new products. Now in 2019, we are a company of 67 staff 
and selling in over 50 countries with our Inspiration Branded products accounting for over 46% of revenues.

The following image visually summarises this evolution.

2003

95%

Distributed products

£630k

Annual turnover

99%

Domestic market

Excellent 
customer service

Commitment to improving 
patient outcomes

Distributor with  
four Principals plus 
Technical Support

Inspire nCPAP 
Launched

First Tecotherm 
Agreement

Unique CFM 
rights secured

inspiration-healthcare.com

11

 In 2013 we took the strategic 
decision to commence 
investment in our own product 
development.

Continuous 
innovation

Collaboration with 
key opinion leaders

Started R&D 
in-house

Licence 
agreement 
signed
“Project Wave”

2019

46%

Inspiration Branded products

£15.5m

Annual turnover

65%

Domestic market

Acquired Inditherm plc 
for Patient Warming 
System and LifeStart

Inspiration Branded  
products now include: 
AlphaCore5, Unique+ CFM, 
Inspire rPAP

INSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 2019

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder Information12

Our Business Strategy continued

Global Market Revenue

Europe

19%

Asia Pacific

2%

Americas

9%

Domestic

65%

Middle East & Africa

5%

Our Markets 

Having developed our own 
products, we can now tackle more 
international markets reducing our 
reliance on the NHS in the UK 
and drive our margins higher. The 
evolution in our product portfolio 
that can be seen on pages 10 
and 11 has allowed the Group to 
develop from a domestic player to a 
global supplier, from one that relies 
on others (our principals) to one that 
is in control of its own destiny. 

Our journey along this line will 
continue without forgetting our 
roots as a distributor that can add 
value by having a ‘best in class’ 
product portfolio.

We are privileged to work in 
markets that involve trying to save 
the lives of some of the most fragile 
patients. Globally, over 15 million 
babies are born prematurely every 
year (approximately 1 in 10 live 
births) and this number is rising. 

Complications from preterm 
births are the leading cause of 
deaths in children under 5 and 
are estimated to cause over 1 
million deaths in 2015 (Source: 
World Health Organisation). In 
the European Union and USA, 
a combined 9 million babies 
are born, approximately 1 in 
10 need help breathing at birth 
and approximately 1 in 9 are 
premature. Not all babies who are 
premature need resuscitation and 
not all babies who are resuscitated 
are premature. 

inspiration-healthcare.com13

Whilst Neonatal Intensive Care is 
our strategic focus, it is important 
to invest in our Patient Warming 
System that can be used in NICU 
and in other areas of the hospital. 
Maintaining normothermia is 
intrinsic in the treatment of babies, 
but having other markets for this 
technology allows us to continue to 
see attractive returns on investment 
in further product development. 
We believe that the markets remain 
strong and attractive to a Group 
of our size with good growth 
potential and a customer base that 
is prepared to pay for products 
that will reduce hospital stays and 
improve patient outcomes, as well 
as the overall patient experience. 

We sell directly into the UK and 
Ireland (“Domestic”) and partner 
with established independent 
distributors in the rest of the world. 

Our Domestic sales team can 
offer some of the best technology 
in the world that complement 
and supplement each other and 
our branded products. A broad 
product portfolio that allows the 
sales team to engage with both 
Key Opinion Leaders (“KOL’s”) and 
customers on a regular basis, is 
a key competitive advantage. Our 
products in the UK and Ireland are 
supported by 24/7 Clinical and 
Technical Support which gives our 
customers the confidence to buy 
new technologies. Buying decisions 
can often take more than a year 
and relationships need to be built 
over time based on trust. Our team 
works closely with all clinical staff 
to ensure that the products we offer 
meet the needs of their patients. 

In international markets, 
our distribution partners sell 
complementary products to ours 
following a similar model to us 
in our Domestic market. As local 
regulations change it is important 
that we have an expert team to 
help work with distributors so 
that localisation of products, be 
that translations of instructions, 
and other labels, or any specific 
regulatory requirements are met. 
This is an important blend of 
skills and expertise between local 
distributors, to provide intimate 
market knowledge, and our own 
sales, marketing and regulatory 
team to ensure the products are 
fit for the market and ensure local 
compliance.

Market Sectors

Inspiration Healthcare has always 
been able to identify products that 
will fulfil a customer need, improve 
patient outcomes and bring them 
to market. This has led us to be 
considered a leader in technology 
for many of our customers. 

Over the last few years we have 
focused our attention on products 
which improve patient outcomes 
around the first few days of life 
and which are able to help the 
most fragile of patients; premature 
and sick babies. We have also 
found technology that can cross 
into different clinical areas, such 
as the Patient Warming System 
that can be used with premature 
babies, keeping them warm when 
they cannot truly thermoregulate 
themselves; as well as in the 
Operating Theatre, where the same 
technology can be used to keep 
patients warm before, during and 
after surgery. 

Inspiration Branded and Distributed 
products are sold in three market 
sectors as described below.

›     Critical Care: Our largest 

business area. The main source of 
revenue comes from the Neonatal 
Intensive Care Units (“NICU”). 
Products for premature and sick 
babies include our Inspire range 
(non-invasive respiratory support), 
Tecotherm Neo (for thermo-
regulation) and LifeStart (for 
optimal cord clamping). 

 Additionally, in the UK we 
complement these with a range 
of Distributed products including 
ventilators, incubators and a 
range of consumable products. 
In adult intensive care we have 
helped pioneer extra-corporeal 
ventilation as well as making 
available other more novel 
ventilation products.

›     Operating Theatre: We have 

recently re-developed the patient 
warming product range to bring 
it up-to-date and in line with 
both the latest safety standards 
and for surgical practices. We 
see this as an area with great 
potential. We complement these 
products in the UK and Ireland 
with jet ventilators, cardiac 
surgery perfusion products and 
pain management systems. 

›     Home Healthcare: This is an 

important area for our business 
and allows us to gain different 
expertise working alongside the 
companies that help support NHS 
patients in the community. Our 
mainstay in this area is products 
for parenteral feeding although 
we also supply products that are 
used in other non-critical care 
areas of the hospital. 

The revenue of each of these 
sectors is discussed in the 
Operating and Financial Review  
set out on pages 24 to 27.

INSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 2019Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder Information 
14

Our Business Strategy continued

Revenue Streams

Our business model includes 
revenue streams from the sale of 
capital items and consumables as 
well as from Technical Support. 
Both consumable and Technical 
Support are recurring albeit not 
necessarily contractual. Each of our 
market sectors described previously 
has an element of all three 
different revenue streams. Due to 
65% of our revenue in FY2019 
being recurring, our business was 
less reliant on capital budgets in 
health systems around the world 
which can come under increasing 
pressure during economic 
downturns or uncertain times.  
Our growth is enhanced by 
introducing new and innovative 
capital products which in turn 
generate further revenue from 
spares and after-market support.

In particular, our product range 
includes:

›     Capital Equipment: Typically, 
a piece of capital equipment 
will cost in excess of £1,000 
and used in a hospital for more 
than 2 years. It would be used 
on many patients during that 
time with appropriate cleaning 
and disinfection between use, 
as well as planned preventative 
maintenance. Our capital range 
includes our own brand of the 
Tecotherm, AlphaCore5 Patient 
Warming Systems, Unique+ CFM 
and LifeStart. These products 
are complemented in the UK and 
Ireland by a range of Distributed 
products including ventilators and 
infusion pumps. 

›     Consumable Medical Devices: 

Consumable products are 
designed for single use by one 
patient. Sometimes they can 
stay with a patient for a few 
minutes, sometimes longer than 
a week, but are never used from 
patient to patient and are not 
reprocessed. Our own range of 
consumables is headlined by 
the Inspire rPAP and the Inspire 
nCPAP as well as consumable 
items that supplement capital 
brands mentioned above. We 
distribute a range of other 
neonatal consumables as well as 
disposables that link directly to 
our capital range. This is most 
obvious in the Micrel parenteral 
feeding range where a new 
consumable is needed every time 
the patient uses the pump. 

›     Technical Support: A range of 
service options from planned 
preventative maintenance, to 
ad hoc repairs along with the 
selling of spare parts and training 
courses. 

Percentage of Revenue FY2019 (FY2018)

Consumables

Technical Support

Capital

54%
(52%)

*Remaining 2% (1%) is carriage

11%
(12%)

33%
(35%)

inspiration-healthcare.comOur Business Model

Our business can be seen as two linked but discreet parts; our core 
business activity that is profitable, generates cash and sells value-added 
medical devices in over 50 countries; and, our disruptive technology 
activities that finds and develops products we expect to be state-of-the-
art tomorrow and will change practice. 

Through our core business we have always self-funded our new growth 
and investment in novel ideas. Maintaining this approach allows us to 
be entrepreneurial towards early stage ideas. 

As and when the disruptive technologies are turned into products, we 
launch these through our well-developed route to market or, as in the 
case of our Xenon device, find a suitable commercial partner.

15

“ We strive to find and 
develop products that 
will make a difference to 
patient outcomes.”

Revenue Generating
Core Business

Pre-revenue
Disruptive Technology

KEY ACTIVITIES

KEY SECTORS

Sales and Marketing

Critical Care

Product Development

Operating Theatre

Operations

Home Healthcare

KEY ACTIVITIES

KEY SECTORS

Identifying innovative 
product opportunities

Critical Care

Research & Development

Investing in Clinical Research

REVENUE GENERATED FROM

INVESTMENT EXAMPLES

Inspiration  
Branded Products
(Globally)

Distributed  
Products 
(Limited 
Geographies)

Technical  
Support

OUTPUTS

Cash generation

Profi

Product enhancements & range extension

Market development

To become a 
global leader 
in neonatal 
intensive care

Xe

Inspire rPAP 
(recently launched) 

Xenon System 
(NPXe Ltd)  

Project Wave 
(in development)

OUTPUTS

Potentially significant returns on investmen

Groundbreaking products

Competitive advantage

Differentiated product portfolio

INSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 2019Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder Information16

Chief Executive Officer’s Review

Our new products that were 
launched towards the end of the 
previous financial year and early 
in the year ended 31 January 
2019 (“FY2019”) have started to 
show good progress and generated 
revenues of £1.4 million during 
FY2019. This contributed to an 
overall margin improvement as we 
continue our strategy to sell higher 
margin products designed by the 
Group and sold internationally. 

I am pleased to report that we 
achieved our profit expectations  
for the year.

The seemingly ever-increasing 
regulatory issues that consume 
our industry provided us with 
many challenges during the year 
and certainly constrained sales 
growth, particularly in the UK. 
However, we believe that the 
investment we have put into the 

Group over the past two years has 
started to pay off. We are delighted 
to have successfully passed 
two major Quality Management 
System (“QMS”) audits (Medical 
Device Single Audit Program 
and ISO13485:2016) allowing 
us to progress both market and 
product development with greater 
confidence. 

inspiration-healthcare.com17

“ We were delighted 
that newly launched 
products contributed 
over 9% of total 
revenues.”

Neil Campbell  Chief Executive Officer

No review of the year would be 
complete without mentioning that 
we received our largest ever order 
for Patient Warming Systems. This 
order, for our new AlphaCore5, came 
from charitable funds in Poland to 
augment the medical equipment 
used in neonatal units around the 
country. After working to ensure 
that suitable financial security was 

put in place, our team worked with 
our suppliers to be able to meet the 
delivery schedule from March 2019 
as required by the customer. We 
have now established the product 
as the leader in Poland and look 
forward to leveraging this position in 
other markets.

We have continued to invest in our 
people to ensure a strong platform 
for future growth. Last year we 
announced key management 
appointments which will take the 
company forward, this year we are 
pleased that we have expanded the 
team and appointed Nigel Weston 
as our Head of Operations. 

INSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 2019Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder Information18

Chief Executive Officer’s Review continued

Investing in our management skills 
has been an important part of our 
development and we now have a 
strong set of core competencies 
that will put the company in a 
strong position going forward.

Brexit also had an impact on the 
business during the year especially 
around management resources 
and regulatory compliance. We 
set up an internal project team, 
regularly reporting to the Board, 
that developed contingency plans 
across all areas of the business.

From a compliance perspective 
we were doubly impacted as 
both a manufacturer and a 
distributor in the EU and the UK 
with potential changes required 
in both jurisdictions. One of the 
main issues for us was how the 
European regulatory framework 
would be implemented. Having our 
Notified Body, TUV Süd, based in 
Munich meant that our product 
certificates would not be affected.

In terms of the impact of Customs 
changes: based upon general 
practice around the world, we 
believe that our products are 
unlikely to incur any trade tariffs; 
disruption to the supply chain and 
the need to ensure we have stock 
for both the NHS and our overseas 
distributors meant an increase in 
our stock holding post January 
2019 whilst we await the final 
outcome of Brexit negotiations. 

Sales & Marketing

We have recently restructured our 
internal reporting lines to help 
streamline our business. Marketing 
will now report into Toby Foster 
as Commercial Director, which 
will allow greater alignment to 
the needs of our international 
customers ensuring that sales 
management and marketing 
management work together to 

address the opportunities in 
different markets across our 
product portfolio.

Once certificates were received, 
we worked hard to register the 
products in key markets. 

We continue to work hard with Key 
Opinion Leaders (“KOL’s”) to ensure 
they understand the benefits of 
our products. This is now paying 
dividends as, for example, the 
LifeStart product is being used in 
two major clinical trials; one in Italy 
and one in the US. Working with 
the key researchers in key markets 
will position us at the forefront of 
the market. 

In the last 12 months we have 
seen a down turn in spending 
in the UK and Ireland on capital 
equipment and this was a factor in 
revenues being flat year-on-year. 
Whether this was due to Brexit and 
funds being held back in the short 
term we do not know. It is therefore 
pleasing that some orders have 
come in sooner than expected in 
FY2020. Capital spend normally 
runs in cycles and we are optimistic 
about a number of opportunities 
over the next 12 months.

A notable success in the UK 
market was the Home Healthcare 
sector where our investment in key 
resources has delivered continued 
growth of sales of the Micrel 
product range. This niche area of 
parenteral feeding continues in line 
with our expectations and we were 
pleased to renew our agreement 
with Micrel Medical Devices SA 
during the year. 

Our international business 
continues to do well. Our biggest 
challenge this year was waiting 
for the CE certificates to be issued 
by our Notified Body to allow 
us to start product registrations. 
This is an increasing theme in the 
industry where Notified Bodies are 
under greater scrutiny and their 
own processes dictate the level 
of due diligence they undertake 
to be able to issue certificates. 

Despite the challenges, we have 
managed to register four new 
products in many markets and 
managed to grow international 
revenue by 12% in FY2019. 

Towards the end of FY2019, we 
changed our distributor in the USA 
which we believe will give us better 
focus in the Neonatal Intensive 
Care Unit (“NICU”) for our product 
range going forward. As we submit 
our new products for regulatory 
approval in the United States we 
will evaluate the investment needed 
to penetrate the market.

Research 
and Development

Our investment in Research and 
Development is key to our future 
success as we continue our journey 
to migrate from a distributor of 
medical equipment in the UK and 
Ireland to become a world leader 
in Neonatal medical devices. 
We are extremely pleased that 
we can continue this journey 
by announcing the licence of a 
novel technology, “Project Wave”, 
from a major US based university 
(see pages 7 and 19 for more 
information on Project Wave). 

Whilst the development of the 
Project Wave technology will be 
one of our primary areas of R&D 
focus during the forthcoming year, 
we also have a number of other 
exciting development projects in 
the area of Neonatal Intensive Care, 
especially around the first few days 
of life. This focus will allow our 
R&D team a greater understanding 
of the infant’s journey through their 
stay in hospital and hence develop 
products that are most appropriate 
for their needs. 

inspiration-healthcare.com19

Disruptive Technologies – Project Wave 

THE PROBLEM

Apnoea of 
prematurity/
respiratory 
support

CURRENT 
TREATMENTS

Drugs

POTENTIAL 
COMPLICATIONS

Long-term
damage

Aggresive 
respiratory 
strategy 
(Pressure)

Aggressive 
respiratory 
strategy 
(Oxygen)

Pneumothorax

Blindness

MARKET 
OPPORTUNITY

>1.5 million 
babies p.a.

>$60 million

Status 
Prototype/
early stage 
clinical trials

THE SOLUTION

Non-invasive 
respiratory 
device, non-
pharmaceutical

PROJECT WAVE

During FY2019 our investment in 
R&D slowed to 4.1% of revenue 
(FY2018: 6.2%), partly due to 
the well-publicised and prolonged 
regulatory processes resulting in 
delayed external spend whilst we 
waited for regulatory approvals, 
but also whilst we negotiated the 
licence agreement for Project Wave.

Quality Assurance and 
Regulatory Affairs

A lot has been made of the 
regulatory changes in our industry. 
We made the strategic decision 
two years ago to make significant 
investment in these key functions 
to not only maintain our level 
of compliance but to raise our 
standards, both internally and 
externally, and stay ahead of 
these changes. We were therefore 
thrilled to have been certificated 
to the new international quality 
management standard for medical 
devices, ISO13485:2016 as well 

as the new Medical Device Single 
Audit Program (“MDSAP”) meaning 
that we have been audited to and 
certified that we meet the quality 
management requirements of 
Canada, USA, Japan and Australia. 
This achievement stands us in 
particularly good stead at this 
time for developing these markets 
further.

We are also in the process of 
planning for the new European 
regulatory changes which all new 
medical devices must comply 
to after May 2020. The Medical 
Device Regulations (“MDR”) 
replaces the old Medical Device 
Directive and raises a number of 
challenges for product development. 

Products that we currently sell will 
have a further five years to comply 
but new devices in development 
will have to meet these new 
standards from the current year. 
Whilst the UK Medicines and 
Healthcare Products Regulatory 

Agency (“MHRA”) have stated that 
the UK will also adopt the MDR, 
Brexit will undoubtedly add some 
additional complications for product 
registration.

Logistics and Operations

During the year we welcomed Nigel 
Weston into the Group as Head of 
Operations. Nigel brings a wealth 
of experience from both inside and 
outside the medical device industry. 
This new role will help us challenge 
our older systems and practices 
and make us more effective at 
fulfilling our customers’ needs. We 
have already seen improvements in 
our operations and look forward to 
more enhancements in the coming 
months.

The Group is reviewing its facilities 
(warehousing, logistics and service 
centre) with regards to projected 
growth, and proposals that will 
help the business achieve its 
ambitions are being developed. 

INSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 2019Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder Information20

Chief Executive Officer’s Review continued

Key Performance Indicators

During FY2019 several of our key 
performance measures (set out 
below) showed improvements 
and evidenced movement towards 
advancing our strategic objectives. 
The year-on-year increases in the 
proportion of revenue from our 
Inspiration Branded products, 
which were also reflected in the 
increased proportion of revenue 
generated from International 
markets, were particularly pleasing. 
Growth in the US was especially 

strong with the success of the 
Tecotherm product range. We 
were equally delighted that newly 
launched products contributed 
over 9% of total revenues, but also 
disappointed that it wasn’t more 
due to the delays of new product 
launches outlined previously.

As a result of the above factors, 
gross margins increased year-on-
year from 44% to 45% in line 
with our objective. Together with 
tight management of cash-based 
overheads this benefit has flowed 

through to EBITDA (earnings 
before interest, tax, depreciation, 
amortisation and share based 
payments) margin which improved 
from 9% in FY2018 to 11%.

The KPI’s below have been chosen 
by the Directors as those that 
measure the key elements of the 
Group’s performance towards 
the achievement of the Group’s 
strategy. See Our Business Strategy 
section on page 8 to 14 for more 
information.

Revenue growth %1

Proportion of revenue from international markets %2

Revenue from Inspiration Branded products %3

Revenue generated from products developed %4

Gross margin %5

R&D % of Revenue6

EBITDA margin %7

Operating margin %8

Underlying diluted EPS9

Definitions

1 Year-on-year growth in reported revenue

FY2019

FY2018

0%

35%

46%

9%

45%

4%

11%

8%

3.4p

8%

31%

45%

1%

44%

6%

9%

8%

3.5p

2  The proportion of total revenue generated from international markets, which excludes Ireland as we class Ireland as a domestic market. Our 

aim is to increase revenue generated from international markets

3  The proportion of total revenue generated from Inspiration Branded products. This includes products where we own the intellectual property 

or we have exclusive worldwide rights to sell and are manufactured under the Inspiration brand. Our aim is to increase the proportion of 
revenue generated from such products

4  The proportion of total revenue from products that we have developed and released to market in the last 3 financial years. Our aim is to 

increase the proportion of such revenue

5  Gross profit expressed as a percentage of total revenue. As a result of increasing the revenue measures above we expect to increase  

gross margin

6  Total spend on research and development, whether capitalised under development costs or expensed to the Income Statement as a 

percentage of total revenue. This measure is an indicator of the cash committed to research and development which is an important aspect 
of our strategy

7  Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and share based payments as a percentage of total revenue. EBITDA is considered 

by the Board to be a useful, alternative performance measure, reflecting the operational profitability of the business. For investors it is 
especially useful for comparing companies with different capital investment, debt and tax profiles. Our aim is to increase EBITDA margin over 
time. See Operating and Financial Review on pages 24 to 27 for a reconciliation of IFRS Operating Profit to EBITDA

8  Operating profit as a percentage of total revenue. Our aim is to increase operating margin over time

9  Underlying diluted EPS before significant prior year tax amendments. See note 8 to the financial statements for more information. 

This measure is used in the determination of whether share options issued under the EMI scheme can be exercised. See the Directors’ 
Remuneration Report for more information 

inspiration-healthcare.com21

“ We have continued to 
invest in our people to 
ensure a strong platform 
for future growth.”

I am confident we have the right 
people, investment approach 
and M&A Strategy to continue to 
improve patient outcomes globally, 
delivering growth and value 
for colleagues, customers and 
shareholders in the years ahead. 

Neil Campbell
Chief Executive Officer

30th April 2019

Acquisitions

Dividend

The Board has a strategic ambition 
to acquire complementary 
businesses. Given the nature of the 
markets in which we operate there 
are opportunities to acquire both 
private companies from owners 
who are looking to exit and from 
large multinationals looking to 
divest non-core businesses. The 
Board has identified a number 
of targets which offer a strategic 
fit and will continue to seek out 
opportunities in order to add scale 
to our business and improve our 
product portfolio and skill set. Over 
the past year we have evaluated 
a number of targets and will do 
so on an ongoing basis. We have 
and continue to engage with a 
number of businesses and whilst 
it is frustrating that none of these 
have come to fruition to date, 
we continue to work diligently to 
conclude a transaction.

NeuroproteXeon Ltd (NPXe)

During last year NPXe, a company 
in which Inspiration Healthcare 
Group plc holds 9.6% (8.6% on a 
fully diluted basis), announced that 
it was seeking to list on the London 
Stock Exchange. For various 
reasons the IPO did not take place 
in the second half of 2018 as 
anticipated.

No dividend is proposed currently 
as our strategy is to reinvest 
earnings to drive future growth, but 
this will be kept under review. 

Going Concern

The Group has prepared a budget 
for the year ended 31 January 2019 
and financial projections for the 
following two years. Having due 
consideration of these projections 
and available cash at 31 January 
2019 of £2.5 million, it is the 
opinion of the Board that the Group 
has adequate resources to continue 
to trade as a going concern. 

Finally

We were all delighted to have 
been informed that we had won 
a Queen’s Award for Enterprise: 
International Trade earlier this year. 
This is a terrific endorsement of the 
hard work throughout the Group. 
This recognition also represents our 
distribution partners and suppliers 
around the world who have been 
with us on our journey over the  
last 6 years. I would like to thank 
you all. 

I would also like to thank my 
Board, Executive team and all 
my colleagues across Inspiration 
Healthcare for their continued 
commitment and hard work in 
supplying life-saving medical 
devices to the NHS and, 
increasingly, international markets. 
The extra work this year for 
successfully passing the Quality 
Management System audits 
(ISO13485:2016 and MDSAP) 
deserves a special mention. 

INSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 2019Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder Information22

Research and Development Case Study

Operating Theatre

Hospital reviews show 
considerable cost savings when 
employing the AlphaCore5 
technology, proving a powerful 
incentive to make the change.

inspiration-healthcare.com

23

20% 

of patients develop 
hypothermia 

Global patient 
warming systems 
market size:

US$2.9bn  
by 2025 

Financially 
The National Institute for Health 
and Care Excellent (NICE) show 
single patient use systems 
costing on average around £10 
per patient versus AlphaCore5 
at £1.25 per patient, proving a 
powerful incentive to make the 
change1. 

Environmentally 
In a world of disposable paper 
and plastic, the AlphaCore5 
is the durable alternative 
minimising water usage, landfill 
usage and absolutely curtailing 
power consumption (typically 
80 watts versus 1500 watts 
per hour). Reducing the carbon 
footprint will be a key driver 
for purchasing decisions in 
Healthcare Systems.

Reference 

1  (2016) Addendum to Clinical Guidelines 

CG65, Inadvertent Perioperative 
Hypothermia: Clinical Guideline 
Addendum 65.1. Developed by the 
National Institute for Health and Care 
Excellence.

A complete redesign

The AlphaCore5 is borne out of a product that we acquired when we bought 
Inditherm plc. The old ‘Alpha’ product was past its best with international 
safety standards having overtaken the design of the original device meaning 
that it needed a complete overhaul to stay on the market. Rather than 
overhauling the design, we took the time to review what we had; the 
marketing team set about specifying other features that would be needed in 
a new product that could lead the market and the concept for a Controller 
which could power many accessories was born. Having a small R&D team 
with experience in design and development of single use plastic medical 
devices represented a different challenge to the company and so we set 
about finding a company that could help us, one with experience in designing 
electronically controlled medical devices.

The next challenge came in the verification and validation of the design. 
New safety standards needed to be met, those for electrical safety and 
electro-magnetic compatibility and the tests needed to be carried out by 
independent test houses to ensure compliance. Although, the existing 
mattresses worked well we were aware these could be improved. Adding 
mattress improvements to work with the new controller made the project 
more complex. 

After many months of testing, taking into account changing standards, 
reviewing our internal documents to ensure that important areas such 
as ‘usability’ and ‘risk analysis’ were done to current best practice, the 
AlphaCore5 was CE marked and launched. With translations into 16 different 
languages, the product range is registered in 30 countries and we look 
forward to its success for many years to come.

INSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 2019Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder Information24

Operating and Financial Review

“ EBITDA1  
increased by 13%  
to £1.65 million.”

Our revenue for the year ended 
31 January 2019 (“FY2019”) was 
£15.5 million, in line with FY2018 
owing to the well-publicised 
regulatory delays for new products 
and their EC certification which 
have constrained revenue growth.

EBITDA1 increased by 13% to 
£1.65 million (FY2018: £1.45 
million). Operating profit was £1.2 
million in line with FY2018 and  
our expectations. Operating  
margin for FY2019 was 7.8% 
(FY2018: 7.8%). Profit after tax 
was £1.1 million, lower than 
FY2018 (£1.2 million) due to a 
higher year-on-year net taxation 
charge. Diluted EPS was 3.56p per 
share (FY2018: 3.98p). Underlying 
diluted EPS2 decreased by 1.7% to 
3.40p per share (FY2018: 3.46p).

Revenue

During the year our plans to launch 
new products were frustrated by 
significant delays experienced 
in obtaining an updated Quality 
Management System certificate 
and a CE Mark approval for 
our upgraded Patient Warming 
System, the AlphaCore5, which 
delayed product registrations. 
The AlphaCore5 Patient Warming 
System (“PWS”) was consequently 
not launched until July meaning 
loss of momentum which hampered 
second half revenue growth. As 
in prior years, revenues were still 
weighted towards the second half 
(“H2”) which accounted for £8.1 
million (FY2018: £8.3 million) or 
52% of full year revenues. 

Mike Briant  Chief Financial Officer

Our international revenue grew 
by 12.4% to £5.4 million, with 
particularly strong growth in North 
America (up 71%) due to increased 
sales of the Tecotherm product 
range. Domestic revenue declined 
by 5.6%, largely due to a reduction 
in capital sales of ventilators.

Products developed in-house 
(“Inspiration Branded products”) 
and launched within the last 18 
months include the Inspire rPAP 
driver, the PWS, the upgraded 
LifeStart and the Unique+ CFM. 
Revenues generated from these 
products in FY2019 amount to 
£1.4 million. These new products 
accounted for 9% of FY2019 
revenue which, together with 
Tecotherm revenue growth, offset 
the decline in the variable capital 
element of our Distributed Products 
in Critical Care and the gradual 
decline of our older licenced 
products (including Inspire nCPAP).

1  Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and share based payments

2  EPS before significant prior year tax amendments

inspiration-healthcare.com25

Percentage of Revenue FY2019 (FY2018)

Inspiration Branded Products

Distributed Products

Technical Support

46%
(45%)

41%
(42%)

11%
(12%)

*Remaining 2% (1%) is carriage

Market Sectors

Critical Care 
£10.7 million, -5% year-on-year 

Operating Theatre 
£1.7 million, +4% year-on-year 

Home Healthcare
£3.1 million, +15% year-on-year 

Our Distributed Product range 
of parenteral feeding products 
continues to grow strongly in line 
with our expectations.

Our Critical Care sector declined by 
5%, largely due to a fall in capital 
sales of ventilators and Inspire 
nCPAP mentioned previously. 
Domestically this is largely a 
replacement market, subject to 
capital budget constraints and can 
thus fluctuate significantly year-
on-year. New business expected to 
replace this was not forthcoming 
due to delays in new product 
certification. The Inspire nCPAP is 
considered a generic product and 
hence subject to pricing pressures. 

Revenue in this sector came 
back to growth after two years 
of decline following our decision 
to upgrade the PWS, which can 
also be used to enhance the 
LifeStart. Even though we suffered 
significant delay in receiving the 
EC certification, revenue from the 
AlphaCore5 enabled this sector to 
achieve overall growth in the H2.

Percentage of Revenue FY2019 (FY2018)

Critical Care

Operating Theatre

Home Healthcare

69%
(72%)

11%
(11%)

20%
(17%)

INSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 2019Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder Information26

Operating and Financial Review continued
Operating and Financial Review continued

Gross Profit

Operating Profit

Net Assets

The value of Non-Current Assets 
as 31 January 2019 at £1.8 
million was in line with FY2018 
as amortisation and depreciation 
offset capital spend in the year. 
Our investment in Neuroprotexeon 
Ltd (“NPXe”), the drug device 
technology company, which 
represents 9.6% of the current 
issued share capital (8.6% fully 
diluted), remains unchanged and 
valued at cost of £111,000. For 
more detail see note 12 of the 
Consolidated Financial Statements.

Inventory increased by £0.2 million 
to £0.7 million, primarily as a 
result of a depletion of inventory 
levels at 31 January 2018. Trade 
and other receivables of £3.1 
million were broadly similar to 
the prior year, with minimal loss 
allowance in either year. 

Trade and other payables 
decreased by £0.5 million to £2.2 
million reflecting a changed mix 
of products sold in January 2019 
and related payment terms of the 
relevant suppliers, together with 
reduced sales commission and 
bonus accruals.

Net Assets increased by £1.2 
million or 27% to £5.5 million.

Gross Profit of £7.0 million 
(FY2018: £6.8 million) increased by 
4% due to a year-on-year increase 
in gross margin from 43.9% to 
45.5%. Revenue from Inspiration 
Branded products, which typically 
generate higher gross margins than 
our Distributed products, increased 
to 46% of revenue (FY2018: 45%) 
or £7.2 million, thus generating a 
higher gross margin blend.

Operating Expenses

Operating expenses amounted to 
£5.8 million (FY2018: £5.6 million) 
with year-on-year increases limited 
to 4.4%. We made additional 
investment in the management team, 
whilst sales commission and bonus 
expense reduced year-on-year as 
not all sales targets were achieved. 
Depreciation and amortisation 
have increased by £0.1 million 
with amortisation of capitalised 
product development costs having 
commenced from the date the 
products were released to market.

EBITDA1

EBITDA1 amounted to £1.65 million, 
an increase of £0.19 million over the 
prior year due to increased gross profit 
and cash-based overheads being kept 
broadly fl t. EBITDA1 margin improved 
from 9.4% to 10.7%.

EBITDA Reconciliation

1  Earnings Before Interest, Tax,  

Depreciation & Amortisation (“EBITDA”)

Reconciliation from 
operating profit

FY2019
£000’s

FY2018
£000’s

Operating Profit 
per Income 
Statement

Add back:

Depreciation and 
amortisation

Share based 
payments

1,213

1,204

364

71

230

20

EBITDA

1,648

1,454

At £1.2 million, Operating Profit 
was in line with the prior year with 
increased gross profit offsetting 
slightly higher overheads.

Taxation 

The Group has recorded an  
income tax charge of £116,000 
(FY2018: credit of £21,000).  
This is net of current tax credits 
for the previous year amounting to 
£104,000 (FY2018: £183,000) 
and a related additional deferred  
tax charge of £56,000 (FY2018: 
£nil) arising from revised 
computations for that year. The 
effective tax rate in FY2019, 
adjusted to exclude significant prior 
year amendments, was 13.5% 
(FY2018: 13.5%) For more detail 
see note 7 of the Consolidated 
Financial Statements. 

Cash flow

Cash and cash equivalents as at  
31 January 2019 amounted to 
£2.5 million, an increase of £0.45 
million over the year. Net cash 
generated from operating activities 
was £0.8 million, £0.1 million 
lower than in FY2018. Before tax 
paid/recovered, cash generated 
from operations of £1.0 million was 
£0.1 million higher than FY2018. 
In FY2018 we received a prior 
year tax recovery of £0.2 million 
which was not repeated in FY2019. 
Investing activities totalled £0.4 
million (FY2018: £1.0 million), 
primarily consisting of capitalised 
development expenditure of £0.3 
million to complete the PWS, but 
lower than the £0.7 million spent 
in FY2018 on the same project and 
completing the three products that 
we launched towards the end of  
that year.

inspiration-healthcare.com 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
27

Earnings Per Share

EPS (basic) was 3.6p per share 
(FY2018: 4.0p); diluted EPS 
(allowing for share options 
outstanding) was 3.6p per share 
(FY2018: 4.0p). Underlying  
diluted EPS2 was 3.4p per share, 
down 2% on FY2018 (3.5p). The 
slight year-on-year declines were 
due to the higher net tax charge set 
out above.

Underlying EPS Reconciliation

2  EPS (diluted) before significant  

prior year tax amendments

Reconciliation 
from Diluted EPS

FY2019
Pence

FY2018
Pence

Diluted EPS  
as reported  
(see note 8)

Adjust for 
significant 
prior year tax 
amendments

Underlying  
Diluted EPS

3.56

3.98

(0.16)

(0.52)

3.40

3.46

Review of Business and  
Future Developments

On a Group basis the business 
review and future prospects are 
set out in the Chairman’s Report 
on pages 4 and 5 and the Chief 
Executive Officer’s Report on 
pages 16 to 21. Key performance 
indicators are discussed on  
page 20. 

The Board believes that overall the 
Annual Report and Consolidated 
Financial Statements are fair, 
balanced and understandable. 

Share Price during the Year

The range of market prices during 
the year 1 February 2018 to  
31 January 2019 was 47.0p to 
76.0p and the mid-market price  
of the Company’s shares at  
31 January 2019 was 58.0p. 

Mike Briant
Chief Financial Officer

30th April 2019 

Financial highlights

Revenue  
stable at

£15.5m

EBITDA1  
increased by

13%

International Sales  
up 12% to

£5.4m

Operating Profit  
as expected at

£1.2m

Revenue  
from new products3

£1.4m

Net Assets  
up by £1.2m 

27%

Gross Margin  
up to 

45.5%

Cash up by  
£0.4m to 

£2.5m

1  Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and share based payments
2  EPS before significant prior year tax amendments
3  FY2019 revenue from products launched in the last three years

INSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 2019Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder Information 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
28

Principal Risks and Uncertainties

Our Strategic risks appetite is 
assessed as level 4 (Seek) as 
we aim to be innovative in our 
specialist areas. For Operational 
risks we adopt level 2 (Cautious) 
as our customer service is integral 
to our business model. Our risk 
appetite for Financial & Compliance 
is level 1 (minimal) as we work in a 
highly regulated industry. 

The Group’s principal risks, our 
actions to mitigate those risks, a 
directional indication of whether 
the risks have increased, decreased 
or remained about the same, 
together with further commentary 
are set out in the table below.

Risk Appetite

Risk appetite can be defined as ‘the 
amount and type of risk’ that the 
Group is willing to take in order to 
meet their strategic objectives. The 
Board have applied a differentiated 
risk appetite to each major category 
of risk, i.e. Strategic, Operational, 
Financial & Compliance. 

Levels of risk were considered 
against the following categories: 

0  Avoid risk – zero tolerance 

1   Minimal risk – as little as 

reasonably possible 

2   Cautious – prepared to accept 

some limited loss 

3   Open – prepared to consider 
balance between risk and 
reward, invest for future return 

4   Seek – prepare to be innovative 
in pursuit of higher returns 

5   Mature – confident of setting 
high levels of risk appetite 
underpinned by rigorous 
processes and controls 

Principal Risk

STRATEGIC RISKS

New product development

Mitigation

Movement  
in Year

Commentary

The Group invests in R&D projects 
in order to develop innovative new 
products. Continued growth within 
existing customers depends upon 
the successful introduction of these 
new products.

Regular review of projects at 
Board level. Investment in R&D 
and regulatory resources to 
stay up to date with technology 
developments and regulatory 
requirements.

Risks are the late delivery of the 
projects, the changing regulatory 
landscape and competitive activity 
in the market place which may 
make projects redundant.

Project approval process with 
approval steps. 

Regular Project Steering Board 
reviews.

Post implementation reviews.

Acquisitions

Acquisitions are necessary to fulfil 
the Group’s strategy and ambitions. 
The Group may not be able to find 
acquisition targets at acceptable 
prices. 

There is also a risk that 
management does not have 
adequate time and resources to 
identify, source, negotiate and 
integrate new acquisitions. 

Acquisition criteria have been 
agreed by the Board and 
a list of potential targets is 
reviewed quarterly with the 
Board. A strong second tier of 
management has been hired 
to underpin the running of 
the business and allow senior 
executives to spend time on 
acquisition activity. Acquisition 
financing capability has been 
discussed with the NOMAD.

There were fewer projects in the 
year and focus was on enhancement 
of existing products. Additionally, 
the product development business 
processes passed the MDSAP audit 
during the year with complimentary 
comments. Thus, the reduced risk 
level over the year. All product 
developments are subject to ever 
increasing regulatory changes. As 
product developments involve more 
novel technology or require changes 
in medical practice in order to 
maximise benefit the risk level will 
increase.

Senior executives have engaged 
with selected potential targets 
and in some cases dialogue is 
ongoing. A new role created in 
second tier management has filled 
the identified gap in operational 
management skills. The second 
tier being strengthened and robust 
frees executive time and increases 
chances of successful integration.

inspiration-healthcare.com 
 
 
Principal Risk

Mitigation

Movement  
in Year

Commentary

29

International expansion

The strategy is to leverage value by 
offering products to geographically 
diverse markets, starting in Europe, 
Middle East, USA and Far East, 
working with distributors who can 
offer a full-service model to support 
the Group’s value proposition. 
The risk is that we cannot identify 
suitable partners for new markets or 
that partners in existing markets fail 
to meet expectations. 

Meaningful development of the USA 
market, the largest medical device 
market in the world, may require 
significant investment in resources 
and may not generate the expected 
returns or take longer to crystallise 
those returns.

OPERATIONAL RISKS

Brexit

Short-term risks are to the disruption 
of the logistics of import and export 
transactions. Tariffs are unlikely on 
medical devices. Foreign currency 
volatility may increase.

Longer-term risks may be regulatory 
diversity and potential loss of  
market access.

Dependence on third party principals

The Group’s business depends on 
products and services provided 
by third parties. If there is any 
interruption to the supply of  
products or services by third parties  
or those products or services are not 
as scalable as anticipated or at all,  
or there are problems maintaining 
quality standards and delivering 
product to specification, or there are 
problems in upgrading such products 
or services, the Group’s business will 
be adversely affected. The Group 
may not be able to find adequate 
replacements in a timely manner  
or at all.

Changes in legislation & regulation

The medical devices industry is 
highly regulated and each territory 
in which the Group operates is 
subject to its own stringent legal 
and regulatory regime. Regulatory 
approvals are required to market and 
sell medical devices into both the 
UK and export markets. The risk is 
that new, stricter regulations prevent 
product introductions or delay them 
due to delays in approval. In the 
EU the Medical Device Regulation 
(“MDR”) which all new medical 
devices must comply to comes into 
effect from May 2020.

Founding executives and 
a recently strengthened 
international sales management 
team have extensive experience 
in identifying distributors and 
have extensive networks in 
target markets. Distributor 
performance targets are set  
and are regularly reviewed.

A measured approach to 
investing in the USA market 
is taken with input from the 
Board. Market research will 
be undertaken to ensure full 
understanding of the markets 
for our products and potential 
routes to market.

A no-deal contingency plan has 
been developed which includes 
significant inventory build, 
securing increased warehouse 
space and forming a legal entity 
in Ireland for EU medical device 
regulatory purposes. The Group 
has natural hedges for the Euro 
and a proportion of net exposures 
is hedged using forward contracts 
to provide some financial 
certainty.

Management of the Distributed 
Products business has been 
re-organised to ensure greater 
focus. The Group strives to 
maintain strong, mutually 
beneficial relationships with 
key strategic suppliers and the 
newly created role of Head of 
Operations which was filled 
during the year will support 
this. Contracts with two key 
longer-term suppliers have been 
renewed during the year.

Appropriate stock levels are 
maintained for key products. 

The Group has stringent internal 
controls in order to comply with 
the relevant legal and regulatory 
conditions in the UK and in 
its export markets. The Group 
has a Regulatory Affairs and 
Quality Assurance department 
dedicated to liaising with the 
regulatory authorities to monitor 
any changes in conditions and 
ensure continuing compliance 
with the existing and new 
conditions. 

Market research into the USA 
market will be undertaken during 
2019/20 ahead of potential 
investment in later years. 
Regulatory strategy and planning 
have been undertaken.

As an importer and exporter 
of medical devices to non-EU 
countries prior to Brexit we already 
had processes for managing the 
documentation for moving goods 
across borders. Less than 5% of 
our employees are EU nationals 
based in the UK and we have 
been in regular communication 
regarding their status in the UK.

Reliance on Distributed Products 
is reducing as we develop our own 
manufactured products which 
is one of our strategic objectives 
outlined in Our Business Strategy 
on pages 8 to 14. Progress 
towards this objective is measured 
in our key performance indicators 
on page 20.

We made the strategic decision 
two years ago to make significant 
investment in regulatory affairs 
and quality assurance. We have 
now been certificated to the new 
international quality management 
standard for medical devices, 
ISO13485:2016 as well as the 
new Medical Device Single Audit 
Program (“MDSAP”). We are also 
in the process of planning for the 
new European regulatory changes 
under the MDR. Regulatory 
requirements are increasing but so 
is our capability to address them.

INSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 2019Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder Information 
 
 
30

Principal Risks and Uncertainties continued

Principal Risk

Mitigation

Movement  
in Year

Commentary

Additionally, the Group complies 
with GDPR legislation.

We have invested in the second 
tier management team and 
now have a stronger set of core 
competencies that can help reduce 
reliance on individuals. 

A culture of engagement and 
recognition exists and it is the 
Group’s policy to maintain a safe 
and pleasant work environment.

No competitor provides products 
across our entire range.

OPERATIONAL RISKS (cont’d)

IP, data integrity and security

The Group has Intellectual Property 
that it needs to protect. This can 
be in the form of innovative ideas, 
marketing specifications, customer 
requirements and financial data. Our 
patents and controls may not prevent 
competitors from independently 
developing or selling products 
and services similar to ours, and 
there can be no assurance that the 
resources invested by us to protect 
our IP will be effective, particularly in 
new markets. 

All companies are increasingly 
exposed to threats to access and 
steal data.

Reliance on key individuals

The success of the Group depends 
crucially upon the expertise and 
relationships of the founder Directors 
and certain other senior employees. 
The loss of any of the key 
individuals could have an adverse 
effect on the Group. 

Competition

The Group operates in a highly 
competitive market and may face 
competition from products  
designed, marketed and supplied  
by companies with significantly 
greater resources.

The Group maintains a register 
of IP and reviews its patents and 
controls on a regular basis. Key 
strategic markets are prioritised 
for protection.

The Group has deployed 
a number of measures to 
strengthen its protection against 
cyber security. These include 
systems access controls, staff 
training, passwords, updating 
policies and procedures. 

The Group has a strong, 
social purpose to save lives 
and improve outcomes which 
is motivating to employees. 
Rewards are competitive.  
A Long Term Incentive Plan 
(“LTIP”) exists for all senior 
and key roles that have been 
identified as key to future 
growth.

Exceptional customer service 
and short lead times provide 
barriers to competition. We 
have innovative products that 
are niche in our field helping to 
add value to our sales call and 
improve engagement with key 
decision makers. We work closely 
with key opinion leaders in 
neonatology. Our 24/7 customer 
service is a differentiator which 
is actively promoted in our 
domestic markets.

Neil Campbell
Chief Executive Officer

30th April 2019

inspiration-healthcare.com 
 
 
31

Statement of Corporate Governance

As Chairman of the Board it is my responsibility to 
ensure that the Group has both an effective corporate 
governance and Board leadership. In accordance with 
the requirement of AIM all listed companies have to 
adopt a corporate code. The Group has adopted the 
Quoted Companies Alliance Corporate Governance 
Code (the “QCA Code”) and this report follows the 
structure of these guidelines and explains how we have 
applied the guidance. The Board considers that the 
Group complies with the QCA Code in all respects.

The Executive Directors meet shareholders and other 
investors/potential investors at regular intervals during 
the year and hosted an investor meeting during 
the year. The Chief Executive Officer and the Chief 
Financial Officer make presentations to institutional 
shareholders and analysts each year immediately 
following the release of interim and full year results. 
They also attend retail shareholder events. The slides 
used for such presentations are made available on the 
Group’s website under the Annual Reports section.

The Board believes that corporate governance is 
more than just a set of guidelines; rather it is a 
framework which underpins the core values for running 
the business in which we all believe, including a 
commitment to open and transparent communications 
with stakeholders. We believe that good corporate 
governance improves performance while reducing or 
mitigating risks.

QCA PRINCIPLES

Deliver Growth

1.  Establish a strategy and business model which 

promote long-term value for shareholders

The Group’s purpose is to improve health outcomes 
by providing highly advanced medical technology. Our 
mission is to develop outcome-enhancing products for 
intensive care patients and to promote these globally. 
Our strategy is defined clearly in our Business Strategy 
section of our Annual Report. Our business model is set 
out clearly in our Annual Report and on our website. 
Our strategy and business model are underpinned by 
a clear set of values: patient focus, outcome changing, 
pioneering and research driven, which reflect our long-
term objective of enhancing patient care and delivering 
business growth and profitability. 

Our Key Performance Indicators (“KPI’s”), which are 
set out in the Chief Executive Officer’s Review in 
an earlier section of this annual report and measure 
growth and profitability reflecting our business model.

2.  Seek to understand and meet shareholder 

needs and expectations

Relationships with our shareholders are important to 
us and we seek to provide effective communications 
through our Interim and Annual Reports along with 
Regulatory News Service announcements, including 
RNS Reach. We also use the Group’s website,  
www.inspiration-healthcare.com for both financial  
and general news relevant to shareholders. 

The Group’s NOMAD and broker, Cenkos Securities plc, 
is briefed regularly and updates the Board during the 
year on shareholder expectations. The Group retains a 
professional investor relations company, Cadogan PR, 
to be the main contact point for our shareholders and 
to assist us with communicating with and receiving 
feedback from shareholders and financial analysts.

The Annual General Meeting (“AGM”) is regarded as an 
opportunity to meet, listen and present to shareholders 
and their participation is encouraged; all Directors 
attend the AGM and are available to meet shareholders 
individually or as a group. For each resolution the 
number of proxy votes received for, against and 
withheld is circulated to all attendees. The results for 
the AGM are subsequently published on the Group’s 
corporate website. All 2018 AGM resolutions were 
passed comfortably.

The Non-executive Chairman, Mark Abrahams and 
the Senior Independent Director, Bob Beveridge, are 
available to meet major shareholders if required to 
discuss issues of importance to them.

3.  Take into account wider stakeholder and social 
responsibilities and their implications for long 
term success

Our continued success is built on the talented people 
who work here, and employee engagement forms a 
major part of our strategy. Everyone at Inspiration 
Healthcare Group is a valued member of the team, 
and our aim is to help every individual achieve their 
full potential. We offer equal opportunities regardless 
of race, gender, gender identity or reassignment, age, 
disability, religion or sexual orientation. We hold regular 
all-staff gatherings, including an annual conference, 
to keep employees updated on business progress and 
we also operate an incentivised Improvement Ideas 
scheme. We are a living wage employer.

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 201932

Statement of Corporate Governance continued

A key element of our business model is to work closely 
with key opinion leaders in the healthcare system and 
to develop, evaluate and enhance our propositions in 
full co-operation with those partners. Our reputation for 
innovative, outcome-enhancing products and excellent 
service is key and we regularly seek feedback on the 
performance of our products.

Our key strategic suppliers are long-term in nature 
and work with the Group on product innovations. As 
a medical device company, we regularly assess key 
supplier performance and engage with them to discuss 
and agree objectives and to enhance product capability 
and performance.

4.  Embed effective risk management, considering 
both opportunities and threats, throughout the 
organisation

The Board recognises the need for a robust system 
of internal controls and risk management. The 
assessment of risks and the development of strategies 
for dealing with these risks are achieved on an 
ongoing basis through both a quarterly review of 
risks by the Board and the way in which the Group is 
controlled and managed internally. Risk management 
is integral to the ability of the Group to deliver on its 
strategic objectives and the Board’s appetite for risk is 
communicated to shareholders in our annual report.

The system of internal control is structured around 
an assessment of the various risks to the business 
and is designed to address those risks that the Board 
considers to be material, to safeguard assets against 
unauthorised use or disposition and to maintain proper 
accounting records which produce reliable financial 
and management information. However, any such 
system of internal control can provide only reasonable, 
but not absolute, assurance against material 
misstatement or loss. The Board considers that the 
internal controls in place are appropriate for the size, 
complexity and risk profile of the Group.

The Board is responsible for reviewing and approving 
overall Group strategy, approving revenue and capital 
budgets and plans, for determining the financial 
structure of the Group including treasury, tax and 
dividend policy. Monthly results and variances from 
plans and forecasts are reported to the Board. 

The Audit Committee assists the Board in discharging 
its duties regarding the financial statements, accounting 
policies and the maintenance of proper internal 
business and operational and financial controls, 
including liaison with the Group’s external auditors.

The key features of the Group’s system of internal 
control are as follows:

›     an ongoing process of risk assessment to identify, 

evaluate and manage business risks;

›   management structure with clearly defined 

responsibilities and authority limits;

›   a comprehensive system of reporting financial results 

to the Board;

›   Quality Management Systems certified to ISO 13485 

and MDSAP;

›   appraisal and authorisation of major capital 

expenditure, research & development projects; and

›   dual signatories on all bank accounts.

Additionally, the Group operates a number of  
non-financial controls including regulatory compliance,  
our Business Management System, as well as  
Health and Safety.

Maintaining a Dynamic Management 
Framework

5.  Maintain the Board as a well-functioning, 

balanced team led by the Chair

The Board is made of up three Executive Directors and 
three independent Non-executive Directors, chaired 
by Mark Abrahams who has held this post since the 
reverse acquisition of Inditherm plc by Inspiration 
Healthcare Ltd in June 2015. Meetings are open and 
constructive, with every Director participating fully. 
Meetings alternate between our Crawley head office 
and the Leicester distribution centre, enabling the 
Board to meet the senior teams.

The Chairman is responsible for the leadership of the 
Board and ensuring its effectiveness in all aspects of 
its role. He is also responsible for creating the right 
Board dynamic and for ensuring that all important 
matters, in particular strategic decisions, receive 
adequate time and attention at Board meetings. The 
Executive Directors are responsible for the day-to-day 
running of the business and developing corporate 
strategy while the Non-executive Directors are tasked 
with constructively challenging the decisions of 
executive management and satisfying themselves that 
the systems of business risk management and internal 
financial controls are robust. The Non-executive 
Directors give informal advice to the Executives 
between meetings and devote sufficient time to be 
effective in this regard.

inspiration-healthcare.com33

The Board meets regularly during the year (12 times in 
FY2019); a calendar of meetings and principal matters 
to be discussed is agreed at the beginning of each 
year. Board papers are circulated at least one week 
before meetings, allowing time for full consideration 
and necessary clarifications before the meetings. Board 
dinners are held from time to time on the evening 
before meetings and allow broader discussion and 
development of effective Board relations.

The Group has effective procedures in place to monitor 
and deal with conflicts of interest. The Board is aware 
of the other commitments and interests of its Directors. 
Changes to these commitments and interests are 
reported to and, where appropriate, agreed with the 
rest of the Board.

The Chief Financial Officer is also the Company 
Secretary and is responsible for ensuring that Board 
procedures are followed and that the Group complies 
with all applicable rules, regulations and obligations 
governing its operation. If required, the Directors are 
entitled to take independent legal advice and, if the 
Board is informed in advance, the cost of such advice 
will be reimbursed by the Group.

6.  Ensure that between them the Directors have 

the necessary up-to-date experience, skills and 
capabilities

The Non-executive Directors have both a breadth and 
depth of skills and experience to fulfil their roles. The 
Chairman is a highly experienced quoted company 
Director having formerly been Chief Executive Officer of 
Fenner plc, which was a FTSE 250 constituent. Details 
of the Directors’ experience and areas of expertise are 
outlined in the Board of Directors section of our Annual 
Report and in their biographies on our website. They 
typically meet each year without Executives present 
and maintain ongoing communications with Executives 
between formal meetings.

The Board is satisfied that, between the Directors, 
it has an effective and appropriate balance of skills 
and experience, needed at this stage of the Group’s 
development, including in the areas of medical devices, 
sales and marketing, product development, finance, 
innovation, international trading, risk management, 
corporate governance and M&A.

The Audit Committee Chairman updates his technical 
and financial experience by attending workshops held 
by the major accounting firms. 

The Chairman of the Remuneration Committee 
obtains regular updates on best practice for executive 
remuneration packages and initiates periodic 
reviews, taking account of changes to the business. 
Other Directors are regularly kept up to date via the 
latest governance and business updates from major 
accountancy or legal firms and via membership of 
various professional bodies. 

All Directors stand for re-election by shareholders  
each year.

7.  Evaluate Board performance based on clear 
and relevant objectives, seeking continuous 
improvement

More formal Board evaluation processes were  
introduced during 2018. The Senior Independent 
Director facilitated internal feedback on Board 
performance via a questionnaire, which was 
summarised by an independent third party who 
provided feedback for discussion and review by the 
Board. Overall the Board is seen to be working well but 
opportunities for improved effectiveness were identified 
and agreed. These include reducing the number of 
meetings from twelve to seven per year and improved 
agenda planning, focusing two meetings per year on 
strategic matters and scheduling specific dates for other 
key areas, e.g. risk management, R&D reviews, financial 
forecasts, employee engagement, and shareholder 
feedback. Once these improvements have been realised 
the Board will consider an external evaluation.

The Board considers succession planning for the 
Executive Directors on an ad-hoc basis. With further 
development the Board considers the Commercial 
Director and the Chief Financial Officer as potential 
successors to the Chief Executive Officer. Potential 
successors to the Commercial Director and the Chief 
Financial Officer have been identified although are 
not considered immediate replacements. However, 
external recruitment is currently the most likely  
source of immediate replacements for any of the 
Executive Directors.

8.  Promote a corporate culture that is based on 

ethical values and behaviours

The Group’s culture is understood and led by the 
example set by the behaviours of the three Executive 
Directors, two of who were founders of the original 
business. Taking into account that the Group is 
relatively small with less than 100 employees, this 
is considered an effective means of conveying the 
Group’s approach to ethical behaviour. 

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 201934

Statement of Corporate Governance continued

The common culture is based upon four core values:

›   Patient focus

›   Outcome changing

›   Pioneering

›   Research driven

By visiting sites during the year, the Board is able to 
talk to staff and observe behaviours in order to satisfy 
itself on the status of the culture.

The Group places the health and safety of its workforce 
as its top priority with health and safety updates being 
provided at every Board meeting and actions arising 
are followed up by the CEO.

9.  Maintain governance structures and processes 

that are fit for purpose and support good 
decision-making by the Board

The Board is committed to high standards of corporate 
governance. It has joined the QCA and has  
chosen to adopt the QCA Corporate Governance Code. 
We review our corporate governance arrangements 
regularly and expect to evolve these over time as 
the business grows. There is a clear division of 
responsibilities between the Chairman and the Chief 
Executive Officer. The Chairman is responsible for 
leading the Board, setting its agenda and monitoring 
its effectiveness. He meets regularly and separately 
with the Chief Executive Officer and the other Non-
executive Directors.

The Board has revised its a schedule of matters 
reserved for its decision during the year. These matters 
include:

›   overall business strategy;

The Board delegates authority to three committees 
to assist in meeting its business objectives while 
ensuring a sound system of internal control and risk 
management. The committees meet independently of 
Board meetings.

Audit Committee

The Audit Committee has two members, Bob 
Beveridge (Chairman) and Brook Nolson. The Chief 
Financial Officer and external auditors attend meetings 
by invitation. The Audit Committee’s responsibilities 
include the review of the scope, results and 
effectiveness of the external audit, the review of half-
year and Annual Financial Statements and the review 
of the Group’s risk management and internal control 
systems. The committee met twice during the year 
with full attendance. A separate report of the Audit 
Committee activities is provided in our Annual Report.

The terms of reference for the Audit Committee can be 
found on the Group’s website.

Remuneration Committee

The report of the Remuneration Committee is set out 
in our annual report. The Remuneration Committee 
has two members, Brook Nolson (Chairman) and Bob 
Beveridge. The Committee is responsible for setting 
the remuneration arrangements, including short term 
bonus and long-term incentives, for Executive Directors 
as well as approving, the remuneration principles for 
senior staff. The committee met 5 times during the 
year with full attendance. Mark Abrahams attended 
twice by invitation.

A more detailed terms of reference for the Remuneration 
Committee can be found on the Group’s website.

›   review of key operational and commercial matters;

Nominations Committee

›   review of key finance matters, including approval 
of financial plans, changes to capital structure, 
acquisitions and disposals of businesses, material 
capital expenditure, treasury policy and dividends;

›   governance, including the appointment and removal 
of Board members, remuneration of Directors, set 
up and delegation of matters to committees and the 
reviewing of reporting back thereof;

›   approval of financial statements; and

›   stock exchange related issues including the approval 

of communications.

All Directors receive regular and timely information on 
the Group’s operational and financial performance which 
is circulated to the Board in advance of meetings. 

The Nominations Committee has four members, Mark 
Abrahams (Chairman), Bob Beveridge, Brook Nolson and 
Neil Campbell. The Nominations Committee considers 
succession planning, reviews the structure, size and 
composition of the Board and nominates candidates to 
fill Board vacancies. The committee met once this year 
with full attendance.

A more detailed terms of reference for the Nominations 
Committee can be found on the Group’s website.

inspiration-healthcare.com35

Membership of the Board committees is as follows:

Mark Abrahams

Brook Nolson

Neil Campbell

Bob Beveridge

Audit Committee (AC)

Remuneration Committee (RC)

Nominations Committee (NC)

n/a

n/a

Chair

Member

Chair

Member

n/a

n/a

Member

Chair

Member

Member

The following table sets out the member attendance at Board and Committee meetings during the year ended  
31 January 2019:

Board Members

Number of meetings attended

Mark Abrahams, Chairman

Neil Campbell, Chief Executive Officer

Bob Beveridge, Senior Independent Non-executive Director

Mike Briant, Chief Financial Officer

Toby Foster, Commercial Director

Brook Nolson, Non-executive Director

Non-members are invited to attend committees as appropriate.

Build Trust

10.  Communicate how the Company is governed 
and is performing by maintaining a dialogue 
with shareholders and other relevant 
stakeholders

The Board believes that corporate governance is more 
than just a set of guidelines; rather it is a framework 
which underpins the core values for running the 
business in which we all believe. The Board has formal 
responsibilities and agendas and three sub-committees; 
in addition, strong informal relations are maintained 
between Executive and Non-executive Directors. Non-
executive Directors meet with other senior managers 
and give advice and assistance between meetings. 
Board dinners are held from time to time to provide 
opportunities for broader discussions.

The Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial 
Officer regularly meet with investors after results 
announcements have been made and at other 
shareholder participant events. They also meet 
regularly with the Group’s Nomad/broker and discuss 
any shareholder feedback – the Board is briefed 
accordingly.

Board

12/12

12/12

12/12

12/12

12/12

12/12

AC

n/a

n/a

2/2

n/a

n/a

2/2

RC

n/a

n/a

5/5

n/a

n/a

5/5

NC

1/1

1/1

1/1

n/a

n/a

1/1

All Directors attend the Annual General Meeting and 
engage both formally and informally with shareholders 
during and after the meeting. The results of voting at 
the AGM is communicated to shareholders via RNS 
and on the Group’s website.

The Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial 
Officer make presentations to institutional shareholders 
and analysts each year immediately following the 
release of interim and full year results. They also 
attend retail shareholder events. The slides used for 
such presentations are made available on the Group’s 
website under the Annual Reports section.

The Group engages a professional investor relations 
company to be the main contact point for our 
shareholders and to assist us with communicating  
with and receiving feedback from shareholders and 
financial analysts.

Mark Abrahams
Chairman

30 April 2019

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 201936

Audit Committee Report

The Audit Committee has an important role to play in 
effective reporting to our stakeholders and ensuring 
high standards of quality and effectiveness in the 
external audit process. For the first time, the committee 
has provided a separate report on its activities focusing 
on matters relevant to Inspiration Healthcare Group plc 
and the work of the committee during the year.

Membership

The Audit Committee comprises of Bob Beveridge and 
Brook Nolson and is chaired by Bob Beveridge, whom 
the Board considers has both recent and relevant 
financial experience. Bob is a Chartered Accountant, 
portfolio Non-executive Director and a former plc 
Finance Director.

Meetings

The committee met formally twice during the year. 
The external auditors and Chief Financial Officer 
also attended the meetings at the invitation of the 
committee chairman. After each of its meetings, the 
committee met with the external auditors without the 
presence of Executive Directors or management. The 
committee met informally on a frequent basis during 
the year to discuss and review progress on systems, 
treasury and people matters. 

Main activities

The committee supports the Board in carrying out its 
responsibilities in relation to financial reporting, risk 
management and assessing internal controls. Specific 
issues considered by the committee included reviewing 
the Group’s authorities matrix, plans for improving 
the Group’s cyber security measures and ideas for 
improving the quality and content of the following 
year’s Annual Report. The committee also oversees 
the relationship with the external auditor including the 
effectiveness of the external audit and the provision of 
non-audit services by the external auditor. 

Financial reporting

The committee has recently concluded that the Annual 
Report and Financial Statements for year ended 31st 
January 2019, taken as a whole, are fair, balanced and 
understandable and provide the information necessary 
for shareholders to assess the Group’s business model, 
strategy and performance. The committee reviewed the 
process for preparing the Annual Report. This process 
included the following key elements: 

›   Review of new regulations and reporting 

requirements; papers outlining the impact of IFRS 
16 was specifically considered and the committee 
concurred that the standard is not expected to have a 
material impact on the Group’s financial results. 

›   Monitoring of the integrity of the financial statements 

and other information provided to shareholders 
to ensure they represented a clear and accurate 
assessment of the Group’s financial performance  
and position. 

›   Review of matters of accounting judgement and 
the underlying rationale in each case including 
specifically: capitalisation of product development 
spend, deferred tax related to brought forward 
historical losses and whether or not any expenses 
should be analysed as exceptional. Where 
appropriate the committee reviewed papers prepared 
by management and agreed with the accounting 
treatment. 

›   Review of significant accounting policies (including 

changes required as a result of adopting IFRS 15 and 
IFRS 9 from the year ended 31st January 2019).

›   Review of provisional accounting under IFRS 16, 

leasing, which comes into effect for financial years 
commencing 1 January 2019.

›   Review of a paper outlining the three-year business 
plan and cash forecast as the basis of the going 
concern assessment. 

›   The committee reviewed the full-year and half-year 
results announcement, Annual Report and financial 
statements and considered reports from the external 
auditors identifying the accounting or judgmental 
issues requiring its attention. 

 The committee also reviewed the Strategic Report 
and concluded that it presented a fair, balanced and 
understandable addition to the Annual Report.

inspiration-healthcare.com 
37

›   Key performance indicators (“KPIs”) – a set of 
operational, financial and non-financial KPIs is 
reported each month to the Board. Given the small 
size of the Group currently the committee does 
not require an internal audit function to carry out 
its responsibilities. The committee deemed these 
controls adequate but agreed to review these again in 
the forthcoming year. It was satisfied with the actions 
in place to manage financial risks.

›   Strong cash management – the Group maintains tight 

cash management controls through, for example, 
delegated authorities and dual signatories on all 
bank accounts etc. The Board has approved a 
treasury policy covering counterparty risk and foreign 
exchange management and the committee reviews 
compliance with the policy.

Overview 

The committee considers that it has acted in 
accordance with its responsibilities. The Chairman of 
the Audit Committee will be available at the Annual 
General Meeting to answer any questions about the 
work of the committee. We would welcome feedback 
from shareholders on this report.

Bob Beveridge
Chairman – Audit Committee

30th April 2019

External audit

In the year ended 31 January 2019 fees for non-audit 
services amounted to £1,000 for a subscription to 
web-based accountancy products and services. The 
committee was satisfied with the quality of the audit, 
the degree of challenge and review of the report and 
accounts and will carry out a formal assessment of 
audit quality post the year end in 2019.

Risk management and internal control

The committee reviewed a paper from the Chief 
Financial Officer on the Group’s internal control 
system, the purpose of which is to safeguard 
investment and the Group’s assets, embracing material 
controls and key financial risks. The control system 
is operated as an integral part of the organisation of 
executive responsibilities and accountabilities and is 
designed to manage rather than eliminate the risk of 
failure to achieve business objectives and to provide 
reasonable assurance that assets are safeguarded 
against unauthorised use or material loss, and to 
ensure that its transactions are properly authorised  
and recorded. 

During the year the Group reviewed a number of 
aspects of cyber security including network access, 
software updates, staff awareness as well as its 
policies and procedures. The results of the review were 
reported to the Audit Committee and recommendations 
for improvements are being implemented.

Key control procedures are as follows: 

›   Management responsibility and authorisation 

controls; an established management structure 
operates throughout the Group with a single common 
finance system, clearly defined levels of responsibility 
and delegation of authorities which are built into the 
Priority financial system. 

›   Corporate planning process – an annual plan and 
three-year strategic plan is updated each year and 
approved by the Board. The plan focuses on the 
external environment, strategy and objectives, actions 
to achieve them and implementation plans across the 
organisation. Following approval of the annual budget 
by the Board financial performance and variances 
against budget are monitored monthly and challenged 
centrally. 

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 201938

Board of Directors

“ The Board believes that corporate governance 
is more than just a set of guidelines; rather 
it is a framework which underpins the core 
values for running the business.”

Neil Campbell
Chief Executive Officer

In 2003, Neil became CEO and 
founding partner of Inspiration 
Healthcare Limited, leading them 
through the reverse acquisition of 
Inditherm plc and onto AIM in June 
2015. Neil has spent 28 years in the 
Medical Device sector. After beginning 
his career in medical devices at Smiths 
Medical, Neil held several sales and 
marketing positions at Eschmann and 
Electro Medical Equipment Limited 
(“EME”). Neil’s commitment to 
perinatology has been recognised by 
him being invited to be an industry and 
scientific committee member at the 
Infant Centre in Ireland, a position he 
has now held for several years. Until 21 
June 2018, Neil held a Non-executive 
Director position of Neuroprotexeon 
Limited, a drug-discovery and 
biotechnology company, in which the 
Group is a shareholder. 

Key Areas of Expertise

Medical device market, market 
development, product development, 
regulatory affairs, strategic planning.

Mike Briant
Chief Financial Officer

Mike joined the Board as CFO on 19 
September 2016. He is an experienced 
Finance Director with over twenty 
years’ track record of driving growth in 
international businesses. A Chartered 
Accountant, Mike spent over ten 
years in senior financial roles within 
Thorn plc and then joined Quadriga 
Worldwide as Finance Director. In 
2002 he moved to LMA International 
NV (“LMA”), a global anaesthesia 
company, which he helped to IPO 
on the Singapore Stock Exchange 
and double in size to an £80 million 
company, completing a number of 
acquisitions. Mike was CFO of LMA 
until its acquisition by Teleflex Inc. 

Key Areas of Expertise

All aspects of financial management, 
cost control, mergers & acquisitions, 
public company reporting, risk 
management. 

inspiration-healthcare.com39

Toby Foster
Commercial Director 

Toby joined EME in 1992 having 
previously run his own small business 
in the construction/property industry. 
During his time at EME, he was 
instrumental in launching new products 
including neonatal ventilators, neonatal 
nCPAP, adult high frequency oscillation 
and developmental care. He then moved 
to international sales management 
before heading up the UK sales team. 
In 2003 he was a founding Director 
of Inspiration Healthcare Limited; 

responsible for all sales activities, the 
24/7 clinical support service and patient 
first philosophy, launching several 
innovative technologies including the 
Novalung extracorporeal lung assist 
into the UK critical care market. Toby 
was appointed Commercial Director 
on 1 February 2019 and took on 
the additional responsibility for the 
Marketing function.

Key Areas of Expertise

Medical device market, sales 
management, market development, 
international sales, product launch. 

Mark Abrahams
Non-executive Chairman 

Bob Beveridge
Non-executive Director  
and Senior Independent Director

Brook Nolson
Non-executive Director 

Mark Abrahams became Chairman of 
Inspiration Healthcare following the 
reverse acquisition transaction in June 
2015 and prior to that was Chairman 
of Inditherm plc since 2001. Following 
the acquisition by Michelin, Mark 
has recently retired from the Board of 
Fenner Plc, where he has been both 
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer 
for 25 years, during which time he led 
a strategy of converting the group from 
a power transmissions manufacturer to 
a world leader in reinforced polymers. 
Mark was Vice Chair of Leeds Teaching 
Hospitals Trust and was Non-executive 
Chairman of the Darby Group Plc. 
He is a Chartered Accountant and 
a Companion of the Institute of 
Management. He is a member of the 
Economics Growth Board of the CBI. 

Key Areas of Expertise

Strategy, corporate governance, 
international M&A, financial 
management, operational management, 
investor relations, international 
business risk management. 

Bob Beveridge FCA joined the Board 
on 3 August 2015 and is Chairman 
of the Audit Committee. Bob has 
wide ranging Non-executive Director 
and public company experience; he 
is currently Chairman of the Audit 
Committee of Brady plc and Finsbury 
Food Group plc and Senior Independent 
Director of Brady plc. Previously he was 
Non-executive Director of Hampshire 
Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and 
InternetQ plc, and before that Group 
Finance Director of McBride plc, 
Marlborough Stirling plc and Cable and 
Wireless Communications plc. 

Key Areas of Expertise

Senior financial skills relating to M&A, 
investor relations, risk management, 
financing, audit committees and 
corporate governance. Digital 
technology and financial strategy.

Brook joined the Board as Non-
executive Director on 23 June 2015 
and is Chairman of the Remuneration 
Committee. Brook has considerable 
experience in developing and 
implementing strategic business 
development plans; he is a commercial 
marketing and strategic business 
development expert with a track record 
of designing, leading, and executing 
business transformation strategies 
through customer centric business 
models. Previous senior management 
roles include, Balfour Beatty plc, Birse 
Group plc, Willmott Dixon Group and 
Morgan Sindall plc, Brook is an advisor 
and non-executive consultant to a 
number of organisations across various 
industries.

Key Areas of Expertise

Strategy growth & restructuring, 
business transformation, product 
development, sales growth, leadership 
development. 

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 201940

Directors’ Report

The Directors present their report on the Group and 
Company, together with the audited Consolidated 
Financial Statements of the Group and Company 
for the year ended 31 January 2019. Inspiration 
Healthcare Group plc is incorporated under the laws  
of England and Wales as a public limited company  
and its registered office and principal place of business 
is 2 Satellite Business Village, Crawley, West Sussex 
RH10 9NE. The Company’s Ordinary Shares are 
admitted to and traded on AIM (Alternative  
Investment Market), a market operated by the  
London Stock Exchange.

Cautionary statement

The review of the business and its future development 
in the Strategic Report has been prepared solely to 
provide additional information to shareholders to 
assess the Group’s strategies and the potential for 
these strategies to succeed. It should not be relied on 
by any other party for any other purpose. The review 
contains forward-looking statements which are made 
by the Directors in good faith based on information 
available to them up to the time of the approval of 
the reports and should be treated with caution due 
to the inherent uncertainties associated with these 
statements.

Results and dividends

The results of the Group are set out in detail  
on page 50. 

Business review and future developments

Details of the business activities during the year can be 
found in the Strategic Report on pages 4 to 30.

Political donations

The Group made no political donations during the year 
(FY2018: £nil).

Financial instruments and risk management

Disclosures regarding financial instruments are 
provided within the Principal Risks and Uncertainties 
on pages 28 to 30 and note 19 to the Consolidated 
Financial Statements. 

Capital structure 

Details of the Company’s share capital, together  
with details of the movements therein, are set out in 
note 22 to the Consolidated Financial Statements. The 
Company has one class of Ordinary Share which carry 
no right to fixed income. 

Research and development

The Group continues to invest in research and 
development, in order to extend its product offerings 
and improve the effectiveness of its technology. During 
the year, the Group incurred costs totalling £630,000 
(FY2018: £955,000) including expenditure capitalised 
in accordance with IAS38. 

inspiration-healthcare.comThe Directors of the Company who served 
during the year and up to the date of signing 
the financial statements were: 

Director 

Position

M S Abrahams 

 Non-executive Chairman

N J Campbell 

 Chief Executive Officer 

T Foster 

B Nolson 

Commercial Director

 Non-executive Director

R J Beveridge 

 Non-executive Director

M J Briant 

 Chief Financial Officer  
and Company Secretary

Further information relating to the Board is detailed  
on pages 38 and 39.

Directors’ interests in shares of the Company at  
31 January 2019 and 31 January 2018 and any 
changes subsequent to 31 January 2019 are disclosed 
in the Director’s Remuneration Report on page 44. 
Directors’ interests in contracts of significance to which 
the Group was a party during the financial year are 
disclosed in note 28 of the Consolidated Financial 
Statements. 

Indemnification of Directors

The Directors’ Contracts of Employment and Letters of 
Appointment do not indemnify Directors. The Group 
provides Directors and Officers Insurance cover and is 
contractually committed to provide cover for the period 
of service and six years thereafter.

41

Substantial interests

At 30 April 2019 the Company had been notified of 
the following interests which amounted to 3% or more 
of the issued capital of the Company.

Shareholder

N J Campbell

S G Motley

Lombard Odier Managers 
Group plc

T Foster

Miton Group plc

M J Oxley

W G Walls

Number  
of shares

Percentage 
holding

4,536,271

4,354,453

3,988,726

3,899,908

3,438,364

2,536,271

1,558,934

1,505,000

14.8%

14.2%

13.0%

12.7%

11.2%

8.3%

5.1%

4.9%

3.3%

Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting (“AGM”) will be held at 
the Group’s offices, Unit 2 Satellite Business Village, 
Crawley, West Sussex RH10 9NE at 11.30am on  
27 June 2019. The notice of the AGM in section 4 
contains the full details of the business to be conducted 
and the resolutions to be proposed.

Re-appointment of independent auditors

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP have expressed their 
willingness to continue in office and a resolution to 
re-appoint them is proposed for consideration at the 
Annual General Meeting. 

By order of the Board.

Mike Briant
Company Secretary

30th April 2019

Directors’ interests in shares and contracts

D G Steward

Cavendish Asset Management

1,000,000

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 2019 
 
42

Directors’ Remuneration Report

This report covers the financial year ended  
31 January 2019.

Executive Remuneration Policy

Responsibilities

The Remuneration Committee has 2 members, Brook 
Nolson (Chairman) and Bob Beveridge and they 
have met regularly during the year. The Committee 
is responsible for setting the remuneration packages 
for Executive Directors as well as approving, where 
appropriate, the remuneration of senior staff. The 
Committee sets incentive schemes for the Executive 
Directors to align their interests with those of 
the shareholders and to encourage the strategic 
development of the business. 

Directors’ Service Contracts

The details of the service contracts in relation to the 
Executive Directors and letters of appointment in relation 
to the Chairman and Non-executive Directors are:

Unexpired 
term at 
30 April 
2019

Notice  
period

M S Abrahams

Chairman

34 months

6 months

The Committee endeavours to offer competitive 
remuneration packages which are designed to 
attract, retain and incentivise Executive Directors and 
senior members of the management team with the 
experience and necessary skills to operate and develop 
the Group’s business to their maximum potential, 
thereby delivering the highest level of return for the 
shareholders. Consistent with this policy, the benefits 
packages awarded to Executives are intended to be 
competitive and comprise a mix of contractual and 
performance related remuneration that is designed to 
incentivise them; but not to detract from the goals of 
corporate governance. The remuneration packages  
for the Executive Directors were entered into on  
24 June 2015; or the date of their appointment if 
later. The composition of each Director’s remuneration 
is based on a maximum payment under the terms of 
an annual performance related bonus. Remuneration 
packages are reviewed each year to ensure that they 
are in line with the Group’s business objectives.  
No Director participates in decisions about their own 
remuneration package. The main components in 
determining pay are as follows: 

6 months

6 months

Basic salary/fees and benefits

N J Campbell

T Foster

Chief Executive 
Officer

Commercial 
Director

6 months

6 months

R J Beveridge

Non-executive

25 months

6 months

B Nolson

M J Briant

Non-executive

25 months

6 months

Chief Financial 
Officer

6 months

6 months

The Non-executive Directors, including the Chairman, 
each have a letter of appointment for a three-year 
term. Under the terms of these letters either party 
can serve 6 months written notice to terminate the 
arrangement and the maximum compensation payable 
in the event that appropriate notice is not given will 
be the equivalent of 6 months of the Director’s fees. 
The Executive Directors, including the Chief Executive 
Officer, each have a rolling 6-month contract. There 
are no provisions in these contracts for compensation 
if there is a change of control. The service contracts 
do not contain any provision for compensation on early 
termination other than the notice period. In the event 
of any early termination, the Committee would seek 
to mitigate cost to the Group whilst dealing fairly with 
each individual case.

The basic annual salary is subject to an annual review, 
which takes into account the performance of the Group 
and the individual as well as market factors. Benefits 
comprise the provision of a vehicle allowance, private 
healthcare insurance and a death in service insurance 
scheme. The annual basic salaries of the Executive 
Directors as at 31 January 2019 is as follows:

N J Campbell

T Foster

M J Briant

2019

2018

£147,600

£144,000

£123,000

£120,000

£123,000

£120,000

Executive pay ratio reporting

Whilst the Group is not obliged to report on this matter 
the Board wishes for the business to be as transparent 
as possible on public and social issues. Therefore, as 
part of a business wide review to consider Gender Pay 
Gap issues the business also reviewed the Executive 
Pay Ratio Reporting. The business was pleased that 

inspiration-healthcare.com 
 
43

there were no anomalies identified. Executive Pay Ratio 
Reporting revealed that the highest paid executive 
receives less than 5 times the average salary within 
the business which is considered low. 

Pensions

Executive Directors receive pension contributions of 
5% of basic salary to a stakeholder or money purchase 
scheme on a matched contribution basis. 

Annual performance related bonus

Demanding annual performance targets, which are 
consistent with both the short and long-term objectives 
for the Group, are set for Executive Directors which 
must be achieved before the bonus is payable. The 
Executive Bonus scheme for FY2019 continued to be 
the same as the previous year, with the bonus being a 
maximum of 50% of salary. All bonus calculations are 
excluding benefits in kind and pension contributions. 
Bonus targets are linked to operational performance 
across a number of measures including revenue, 
operating profit, cash flow and health & safety. Against 
these criteria the Remuneration Committee has 
awarded bonuses to the Executives for the year ended 
31 January 2019 equivalent to 10% (FY2018: 25%) of 
salary as follows:

N J Campbell

T Foster

M J Briant

2019

2018

£14,760

£12,300

£12,300

£36,000

£30,000

£30,000

£39,360

£96,000

Share Options Scheme

Share options can be granted to Executive Directors 
to encourage them to deliver sustained, long term 
growth. Except in exceptional circumstances, the value 
of options granted in any year will not exceed one 
third of basic salary. During FY2018, we implemented 
an LTIP (Long term Incentive Plan) for Executives 
and Senior Management, which is consistent with 
the Share Scheme as described in the admission 
document 2015. Nil cost options, which are subject to 
performance conditions (unless noted), were issued to 
the Directors as follows:

N J Campbell

T Foster

M J Briant

1 Not subject to performance conditions.

2019

65,385

57,692

86,014

2018

-

-

135,3381

209,091

135,338

Directors’ Detailed Emoluments (audited)

The emoluments of the Directors of the parent Company for the year in accordance with the basis of preparation 
were as follows:

M S Abrahams

N J Campbell

T Foster

R J Beveridge

B Nolson

M J Briant 

Salary
£’000

Bonus
£’000

Pension
Contribution
£’000

Benefit
in kind
£’000

35

147

123

24

24

123

476

–

15

12

–

–

12

39

–

7

6

–

–

6

19

–

10

10

–

–

11

31

2019
Total
£’000

35

179

151

24

24

152

565

2018
Total
£’000

35

197

165

24

24

166

611

No Directors exercised share options during the current or previous financial year.

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 201944

Directors’ Remuneration Report continued

Share Scheme (audited)

As part of its strategy for Executive and key employee 
remuneration, the Group established on readmission 
to AIM on 24 June 2015, a new Share Option 
Scheme under which share options may be granted 
to officers and employees or members of the Group. 
Under the rules of the new Share Option Scheme, 
the Company may grant both options that qualify as 
enterprise management incentives under schedule 5 
of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 
and unapproved options over Ordinary Shares to any 
employee of the Group and any of its subsidiaries 
(including Executive Directors), subject to various 
scheme and individual limits. 

No option may be granted under the Share Option 
Scheme if, as a result, the aggregate nominal value of 
ordinary shares in the capital of the Company issued 
or issuable pursuant to options granted during the 
previous ten years under the Share Option Scheme 
or any other discretionary employees’ share scheme 
adopted by the Company would exceed 5% of the 
ordinary share capital of the Company in issue on that 
date. The Remuneration Committee has the discretion 
to exceed this 5%, in exceptional circumstances up to 
a maximum of 10%. 

After an initial three-year qualification period options 
are exercisable at any time up to the tenth anniversary 
of the date of grant subject to a performance criterion 
that requires the Group to have achieved a three-
year cumulative growth of between 30% and 50% in 
Earnings Per Share (“EPS”). There are also provisions, 
which may allow exercise of the Options in the event 
of a change of control, subject to the agreement of the 
Remuneration Committee. 

In line with our commitment to recruit and retain the 
very best people we have issued a further 139,512 
approved enterprise management scheme options to 
certain key employees. These options are exercisable 
at nil cost to the employee and are subject to a 
performance condition, to be measured over a three-
year period ending on 31 January 2020, of growth in 
earnings per Ordinary Share in issue (“EPS”) of 40% 
or more compounded over the three-year period. If the 
growth in EPS is less than 40% but greater than 35% 
the number of Option Shares available for exercise 
will be capped at 75%. If the growth in EPS is less 
than 35% but greater than 30% the number of Option 
Shares available for exercise will be capped at 50%. 
If the growth in EPS is less than 30% the Options will 
lapse. During the year 50,000 share options issued 
in the year ended 31st January 2018 have lapsed due 
to employees leaving the company. As at 31 January 
2019 there are, including Directors, 583,941 share 
options in existence.

Directors’ interests in shares (audited)

The Directors’ interests in the 10p Ordinary Shares of the Company at the end of the period were:

M S Abrahams

N J Campbell

T Foster

30 April
2019
Number

155,154

4,536,271

3,899,908

31 January
2019
Number

155,154

4,536,271

3,899,908

31 January
2018 
Number

155,154

4,536,271

3,899,908

The only interests of Directors in share options as at all dates are set out above under Share Option Scheme.  
More information can be found on page 41 setting out substantial interests in the Company. 

Brook Nolson
Chairman – Remuneration Committee

30th April 2019

inspiration-healthcare.com45

Statement of Directors’ Responsibilities

in respect of the financial statements

The Directors are responsible for preparing the Annual 
Report and the financial statements in accordance with 
applicable law and regulation.

Company law requires the Directors to prepare financial 
statements for each financial year. Under that law the 
Directors have prepared the Group Financial Statements 
in accordance with International Financial Reporting 
Standards (IFRSs) as adopted by the European Union 
and Company financial statements in accordance 
with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting 
Practice (United Kingdom Accounting Standards, 
comprising FRS 101 “Reduced Disclosure Framework”, 
and applicable law). Under Company law the Directors 
must not approve the financial statements unless they 
are satisfied that they give a true and fair view of the 
state of affairs of the Group and Company and of the 
profit or loss of the Group and Company for that period. 
In preparing the financial statements, the Directors are 
required to:

›   select suitable accounting policies and then apply 

them consistently;

›   state whether applicable IFRSs as adopted by the 
European Union have been followed for the group 
financial statements and United Kingdom Accounting 
Standards, comprising FRS 101, have been followed 
for the Company financial statements, subject to any 
material departures disclosed and explained in the 
financial statements;

›   make judgements and accounting estimates that are 

reasonable and prudent; and

›   prepare the financial statements on the going 

concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume 
that the Group and Company will continue in 
business.

The Directors are also responsible for safeguarding the 
assets of the Group and Company and hence for taking 
reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of 
fraud and other irregularities.

The Directors are responsible for keeping adequate 
accounting records that are sufficient to show and 
explain the Group and Company’s transactions and 
disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the 
financial position of the Group and Company and 
enable them to ensure that the financial statements 
comply with the Companies Act 2006.

The Directors are responsible for the maintenance 
and integrity of the Company’s website. Legislation 
in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and 
dissemination of financial statements may differ from 
legislation in other jurisdictions.

Directors’ confirmations

In the case of each Director in office at the date the 
Directors’ Report is approved:

›   so far as the Director is aware, there is no relevant 

audit information of which the Group and Company’s 
auditors are unaware; and

›   they have taken all the steps that they ought to have 
taken as a Director in order to make themselves 
aware of any relevant audit information and to 
establish that the Group and Company’s auditors are 
aware of that information. 

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 201946

Independent Auditors’ Report

to the Members of Inspiration Healthcare Group plc

Report on the audit of the financial statements

Opinion

In our opinion:
›     Inspiration Healthcare Group plc’s group financial statements and company financial statements (the “financial 

statements”) give a true and fair view of the state of the group’s and of the company’s affairs as at 31 January 2019 and of 
the group’s profit and cash flows for the year then ended;

›   the group financial statements have been properly prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards 

(IFRSs) as adopted by the European Union;

›   the company financial statements have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted 

Accounting Practice (United Kingdom Accounting Standards, comprising FRS 101 “Reduced Disclosure Framework”, and 
applicable law); and

›   the financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

We have audited the financial statements, included within the Annual Report and Financial Statements (the “Annual 
Report”), which comprise: the consolidated and company statements of financial position as at 31 January 2019; the 
consolidated income statement and consolidated statement of comprehensive income, the consolidated cash flow statement, 
and the consolidated and company statements of changes in shareholders’ equity for the year then ended; and the notes to 
the financial statements, which include a description of the significant accounting policies.

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (“ISAs (UK)”) and applicable law. Our 
responsibilities under ISAs (UK) are further described in the Auditors’ responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements 
section of our report. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for 
our opinion.

Independence

We remained independent of the group in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the 
financial statements in the UK, which includes the FRC’s Ethical Standard, as applicable to listed entities, and we have 
fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements.

Our audit approach

Materiality

Overview
›   Overall group materiality: £155,000 (2018: £155,000), based on 1% of total revenues.

›   Overall company materiality: £78,000 (2018: £71,000), based on 1% of total assets.

Audit  
scope

›   Full scope audit procedures were performed over the company and Inspiration Healthcare Limited.

›   Carrying value of capitalised development costs.

Key audit  
matters

›   Recognition of deferred tax asset. 

The scope of our audit

As part of designing our audit, we determined materiality and assessed the risks of material misstatement in the financial 
statements. In particular, we looked at where the directors made subjective judgements, for example in respect of significant 
accounting estimates that involved making assumptions and considering future events that are inherently uncertain. As in all 
of our audits we also addressed the risk of management override of internal controls, including evaluating whether there was 
evidence of bias by the directors that represented a risk of material misstatement due to fraud. 

inspiration-healthcare.com 
47

Independent Auditors’ Report continued
to the Members of Inspiration Healthcare Group plc

Key audit matters

Key audit matters are those matters that, in the auditors’ professional judgement, were of most significance in the audit 
of the financial statements of the current period and include the most significant assessed risks of material misstatement 
(whether or not due to fraud) identified by the auditors, including those which had the greatest effect on: the overall audit 
strategy; the allocation of resources in the audit; and directing the efforts of the engagement team. These matters, and any 
comments we make on the results of our procedures thereon, were addressed in the context of our audit of the financial 
statements as a whole, and in forming our opinion thereon, and we do not provide a separate opinion on these matters.  
This is not a complete list of all risks identified by our audit. 

Key audit matter

How our audit addressed the key audit matter

Carrying value of capitalised development costs

Refer to Note 10 (Intangible assets) and Note 1 
(Accounting policies).

The Group continues to capitalise development costs as 
it seeks to widen the range of products on offer. 

Research and development activities have slowed in 
FY19 as projects have come to market. 

The recognition of development costs is prescribed 
by accounting standards (IAS38). The carrying value 
of these costs is an important area of judgment 
particularly in respect of the appropriateness of 
capitalisation and subsequent impairment risk,  
and as such has been treated as a key audit matter.

Recognition of deferred tax asset

Refer to Note 21 (Deferred Tax). The Group has 
unrecognised tax losses of £1,291,000 (gross: 
£7,596,000) arising from the historical trading of 
Inditherm plc prior to the reverse acquisition by 
Inspiration Healthcare in 2015.

Management have performed an exercise to stream 
revenue and costs relating to the legacy trade of 
Inditherm. No taxable profits are forecast in the next 
two years and management therefore deem the level of 
uncertainty too high to be able to recognise a deferred 
tax asset.

This has been deemed a key audit matter due to the size 
of the potential asset and the level of judgement required.

We have understood management process for monitoring 
progress of projects;

We have obtained management’s assessment of each project 
and forecast sales plans;

We have compared sales forecasts from the previous year to 
actual results to assess management’s ability to forecast;

Capitalised costs in the year have been tested to supporting 
documentation;

We have considered the appropriateness of development costs 
in line with the IAS 38 accounting standard.

Based on the results of our audit work, we have concluded 
the carrying value of development costs is appropriate and 
consistent with the requirements of IAS 38.

We have obtained and tested management’s assessment  
of the use of historical losses against the ‘streamed’ trade of 
the group;

We have challenged management to support the forecasts made;

We have considered the advice received by management 
from their tax advisers regarding whether historical losses are 
available to be carried forward against future profits; 

We have considered management’s plans for research and 
development and the impact any tax credits will have in 
offsetting future profits;

Based on the results of our audit work, we have concluded 
that management’s assessment is appropriate and consistent 
with the requirements of IAS 12.

We determined that there were no key audit matters applicable to the company to communicate in our report.

How we tailored the audit scope

We tailored the scope of our audit to ensure that we performed enough work to be able to give an opinion on the financial 
statements as a whole, taking into account the structure of the group and the company, the accounting processes and 
controls, and the industry in which they operate.

Inspiration Healthcare Group plc is a holding company with all trading going through the subsidiary, Inspiration Healthcare 
Limited. The entities have a single finance and management team. Both companies report their financial results and position 
using the Group accounting policies.

In setting our audit scope, we included the main trading entity, Inspiration Healthcare Limited, in addition to the company. 
This enabled sufficient coverage over all balances to be obtained on a line by line basis.

The audit work has been completed by a single team.

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 201948

Independent Auditors’ Report continued
to the Members of Inspiration Healthcare Group plc

Materiality

The scope of our audit was influenced by our application of materiality. We set certain quantitative thresholds for materiality. 
These, together with qualitative considerations, helped us to determine the scope of our audit and the nature, timing and 
extent of our audit procedures on the individual financial statement line items and disclosures and in evaluating the effect of 
misstatements, both individually and in aggregate on the financial statements as a whole. 

Based on our professional judgement, we determined materiality for the financial statements as a whole as follows:

Group financial  
statements

Company financial  
statements

Overall materiality

£155,000 (2018: £155,000).

£78,000 (2018: £71,000).

How we determined it

1% of total revenues.

1% of total assets.

Rationale for benchmark 
applied

Revenue is considered to be the 
quantitative measure given the  
most attention by the Group’s  
key stakeholders.

Total assets is the primary measure used by 
shareholders in assessing the performance of  
the entity.

For each component in the scope of our group audit, we allocated a materiality that is less than our overall group materiality. 
The range of materiality allocated across components was between £78,000 and £150,000. 

We agreed with the Audit Committee that we would report to them misstatements identified during our audit above £7,700 
(Group audit) (2018: £7,500) and £3,900 (Company audit) (2018: £3,500) as well as misstatements below those amounts 
that, in our view, warranted reporting for qualitative reasons.

Conclusions relating to going concern

ISAs (UK) require us to report to you when: 

›     the directors’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is not appropriate; 

or 

›        the directors have not disclosed in the financial statements any identified material uncertainties that may cast significant 

doubt about the group’s and company’s ability to continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting for a period of at 
least twelve months from the date when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

We have nothing to report in respect of the above matters.

However, because not all future events or conditions can be predicted, this statement is not a guarantee as to the group’s 
and company’s ability to continue as a going concern. For example, the terms on which the United Kingdom may withdraw 
from the European Union are not clear, and it is difficult to evaluate all of the potential implications on the group’s trade, 
customers, suppliers and the wider economy.

Reporting on other information 

The other information comprises all of the information in the Annual Report other than the financial statements and our 
auditors’ report thereon. The directors are responsible for the other information. Our opinion on the financial statements 
does not cover the other information and, accordingly, we do not express an audit opinion or, except to the extent otherwise 
explicitly stated in this report, any form of assurance thereon. 

In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, 
consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained 
in the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify an apparent material inconsistency or material 
misstatement, we are required to perform procedures to conclude whether there is a material misstatement of the financial 
statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that 
there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact. We have nothing to report 
based on these responsibilities.

With respect to the Strategic Report and Directors’ Report, we also considered whether the disclosures required by the  
UK Companies Act 2006 have been included. 

inspiration-healthcare.com49

Independent Auditors’ Report continued
to the Members of Inspiration Healthcare Group plc

Based on the responsibilities described above and our work undertaken in the course of the audit, ISAs (UK) require us also 
to report certain opinions and matters as described below.

Strategic Report and Directors’ Report

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit, the information given in the Strategic Report and 
Directors’ Report for the year ended 31 January 2019 is consistent with the financial statements and has been prepared in 
accordance with applicable legal requirements. 

In light of the knowledge and understanding of the group and company and their environment obtained in the course of the 
audit, we did not identify any material misstatements in the Strategic Report and Directors’ Report. 

Responsibilities for the financial statements and the audit

Responsibilities of the directors for the financial statements

As explained more fully in the Statement of Directors’ Responsibilities set out on page 45, the directors are responsible for 
the preparation of the financial statements in accordance with the applicable framework and for being satisfied that they 
give a true and fair view. The directors are also responsible for such internal control as they determine is necessary  
to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the directors are responsible for assessing the group’s and the company’s ability to 
continue as a going concern, disclosing as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis 
of accounting unless the directors either intend to liquidate the group or the company or to cease operations, or have no 
realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditors’ responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material 
misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditors’ report that includes our opinion. Reasonable 
assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will 
always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered 
material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users 
taken on the basis of these financial statements. 

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the FRC’s website at:  
www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditors’ report.

Use of this report

This report, including the opinions, has been prepared for and only for the company’s members as a body in accordance 
with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006 and for no other purpose. We do not, in giving these opinions, accept 
or assume responsibility for any other purpose or to any other person to whom this report is shown or into whose hands it 
may come save where expressly agreed by our prior consent in writing.

Other required reporting

Companies Act 2006 exception reporting

Under the Companies Act 2006 we are required to report to you if, in our opinion:

›     we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit; or
›     adequate accounting records have not been kept by the company, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received 

from branches not visited by us; or

›   certain disclosures of directors’ remuneration specified by law are not made; or

›   the company financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns. 

We have no exceptions to report arising from this responsibility. 

Paul Norbury (Senior Statutory Auditor),

for and on behalf of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Chartered Accountants and Statutory Auditors, East Midlands.

30 April 2019

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 201950

Consolidated Income Statement
for the year ended 31 January 2019

Revenue
Cost of sales

Gross profit
Operating expenses

Operating profit

Finance income
Finance costs

Profit before tax
Income tax

Profit for the year attributable to owners of the parent company

Earnings per share, attributable to owners of the parent company 
Basic expressed in pence per share
Diluted expressed in pence per share

Note

3

4

6
6

7

8 
8

Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

Profit for the year
Other comprehensive expense items that may be  
reclassified to profit or loss

Cash flow hedges

Total other comprehensive expense for the year

Total comprehensive income for the year

Note

19

2019
£’000

15,487
(8,445)

7,042
(5,829)

1,213

6
–          

1,219

(116)       

1,103

3.60p  
3.56p

2019
£’000

1,103

(6)

(6)

2018
£’000

15,495
(8,709)

6,786
(5,582)

1,204

–
(2)

1,202
21

1,223

3.99p
3.98p

2018
£’000

1,223

(3)

(3)

1,097

1,220

The Company has elected to take the exemption under section 408 of the Companies Act 2006 from presenting the Company 
profit and loss account.

The notes on pages 55 to 86 are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

Neil Campbell
Director

Mike Briant
Director

inspiration-healthcare.com 
 
 
 
Consolidated and Company Statements of Financial Position
as at 31 January 2019 
(Registered Number: 03587944)

51

Assets  
Non-current assets
Intangible assets
Property, plant and equipment
Investments
Deferred tax asset

Current assets
Inventories
Trade and other receivables
Cash and cash equivalents

Total assets

Liabilities
Current liabilities
Trade and other payables
Financial liability
Contract liabilities

Non-current liabilities
Contract liabilities
Deferred tax liability

Total liabilities

Net assets

Shareholders’ equity
Called up share capital
Reverse acquisition reserve
Share based payment reserve
Other reserves
Retained earnings

Total equity

Group

Company

Note

2019
£’000

2018
£’000

2019
£’000

2018
£’000

10
11
12
21

13
14
15

17
19
20

20
21

22
22
22
22

1,293
408
111
–

1,812

718
3,107
2,539

6,364

8,176

(2,210)
(9)   
(319)

(2,538)

–
(105)

(105)

(2,643)

5,533

3,067
(16,164)
91
(9)
18,548

1,209
461
111
–

1,781

560
3,066
2,086

5,712

7,493

(2,756)
(3)
(328)

(3,087)

(7)
(34)

(41)

(3,128)

4,365

3,067
(16,164)
20
(3)
17,445

5,533

4,365

–
–
7,156
11

7,167

–
37
675

712

–
–
7,156
–

7,156

3
52
668

723

7,879

7,879

(127)
–
–

(127)

–
–

–

(127)

7,752

3,067
–
246
–
4,439

7,752

(959)
–
–

(959)

–
–

–

(959)

6,920

3,067
–
175
–
3,678

6,920

The Company’s profit for the year ended 31 January 2019 is £761,000 (2018: loss £530,000).

The notes on pages 55 to 86 are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

The Group financial statements on pages 50 to 86 were approved by the Board of Directors on 30 April 2019 and signed  
on its behalf by:

Neil Campbell
Director

Mike Briant
Director

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 201952

Consolidated and Company Statements of Changes in Shareholders’ Equity

Group

Issued 
share
capital
£’000

Share
premium
account
£’000

Merger
reserve
£’000

Reverse
acquisition
reserve
£’000

Share
based
payment
reserve
£’000

Other
reserves
£’000

Retained
earnings
£’000

At 1 February 2017

3,067

9,929

4,600

(16,164)

Profit for the year
Other comprehensive expense  
– Note 22

Total comprehensive income/ 
(expense) for the year

Transactions with owners in 
their capacity of owners
Employee share scheme expense 
– Note 25
Capital reduction exercise:
–  Issue of B Shares to Capitalise 

Merger Reserve

– Cancellation of B Shares
–  Cancellation of Share  

Premium Account

Total transactions with owners

– 

–

–

–

4,600
(4,600)

– 

–

–

–

–
–

– 

–

–

–

(4,600)
–

–

–

(9,929)

–

(9,929)

(4,600)

– 

–

–

–

–
–

–

–

At 31 January 2018

3,067

Profit for the year
Other comprehensive expense  
– Note 22

Total comprehensive income/ 
(expense) for the year

Transactions with owners in 
their capacity of owners
Employee share scheme expense  
– Note 25

Total transactions with owners

–

–

–

–

–

At 31 January 2019

3,067

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

(16,164)

–

–

–

–

–

(16,164)

–

– 

–

–

20

–
–

–

20

20

–

–

–

71

71

91

Total
£’000

3,125

1,223

1,693

1,223

–

–

(3)

–

(3)

(3)

1,223

1,220

–

–
–

–

–

–

20

–
4,600

9,929

14,529

–
–

–

20

(3)

17,445

4,365

–

(6)

1,103

1,103

–

(6)     

(6)

1,103

1,097

–

–

–

–

71

71

(9)

18,548

5,533

inspiration-healthcare.com 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Consolidated and Company Statements of Changes in Shareholders’ Equity continued

53

Share
premium
account
£’000

Merger
reserve
£’000

Share 
based
payment
reserve
£’000

Retained
earnings
£’000

Total
£’000

9,929

4,600

155

(10,321)

7,430

Company

At 1 February 2017

Loss for the year

Total comprehensive expense for the year

Transactions with owners in  
their capacity of owners
Employee share scheme expense – Note 25
Capital reduction exercise:
–  Issue of B Shares to Capitalise Merger Reserve
– Cancellation of B Shares
–  Cancellation of Share Premium Account

Total transactions with owners

At 31 January 2018

Profit for the year

Total comprehensive expense for the year

Transactions with owners in their capacity of owners
Employee share scheme expense – Note 25

Total transactions with owners

At 31 January 2019

For more information see note 22. 

Issued
share
capital
£’000

3,067

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

4,600
(4,600)
–

–
–
(9,929)

(4,600)
–
–

–

(9,929)

(4,600)

3,067

–

–

–

–

3,067

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

The notes on pages 55 to 86 are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

–

–

(530)

(530)

(530)

(530)

20

–

–
4,600
9,929

14,529

20

–
–
–

20

3,678

6,920

761

761

–

–

761

761

71

71

–
–
–

20

175

–

–

71

71

246

4,439

7,752

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 2019 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
54

Consolidated Cash Flow Statement 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

Cash flows from operating activities
Cash generated from operations
Interest paid
Taxation received
Taxation paid

Net cash generated from operating activities

Cash flows from investing activities
Interest received
Purchase of property, plant and equipment
Purchase of intangible assets
Capitalised development costs
Acquisition of investment

Net cash used in investing activities

Cash flows from financing activities
Finance leases 

Net cash used in financing activities

Net increase/(decrease) in cash and cash equivalents

Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year

Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year

Note

23

7(b)
7(b)

11
10
10
12

2019
£’000

995
–
–
(147)

848

6
(101)
(24)
(276)
–

(395)

–

–

453

2,086

2,539

2018
£’000

919
(2)
161
(126)

952

–
(254)
(68)
(688)
(5)

(1,015)

(16)

(16)

(79)

2,165

2,086

The movement in total liabilities for financing activities solely relates to the cash flows for finance leases.

inspiration-healthcare.com55

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

1 Accounting Policies

Inspiration Healthcare Group plc (the Company) is a public limited company incorporated in England and Wales and domiciled 
in England. The Company’s registered address is Unit 2, Satellite Business Village, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 9NE and the 
registered company number is 03587944. The Company’s ordinary shares are traded on the AIM Market of the London Stock 
Exchange plc. 

The principal activities of Inspiration Healthcare Group plc and its subsidiaries (together, the “Group”) continue to be the sale, 
service and support of critical care equipment to the medical sector including hospitals.

Basis of preparation 
The principal accounting policies adopted in the preparation of these financial statements are set out below. These policies have 
been consistently applied unless otherwise stated. 

There is no ultimate controlling party.

The individual financial statements of each entity in the Group are presented in the currency of the primary economic 
environment in which it operates (the functional currency). The Group financial statements are presented in pounds sterling, 
which is the presentation currency of the Group.

Group
The consolidated financial statements cover the year ended 31 January 2019. 

The consolidated financial statements have been prepared and approved by the Directors in accordance with International 
Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union (‘Adopted IFRSs’), issued by the International Accounting 
Standards Board (IASB), including interpretations by the International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee (IFRIC),  
and the Companies Act 2006 applicable to companies reporting under IFRS. The consolidated financial statements are prepared 
under the historical cost convention, as modified for any financial assets or liabilities which are stated at fair value through 
operating profit or loss and for share based payments which are measured at fair value. 

Company
The Company financial statements cover the year ended 31 January 2019. 

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Financial Reporting Standard 101, ‘Reduced Disclosure 
Framework’ (‘FRS 101’). The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention and in accordance 
with the Companies Act 2006. 

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with FRS 101 requires the use of certain critical accounting estimates.  
It also requires management to exercise its judgement in the process of applying the Company’s accounting policies. The areas 
involving a higher degree of judgement or complexity, or areas where assumptions and estimates are significant to the financial 
statements are disclosed elsewhere in this note.

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 201956

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

1 Accounting Policies continued

The following exemptions from the requirements of IFRS have been applied in the preparation of these financial statements,  
in accordance with FRS 101:

›   Paragraphs 45(b) and 46 to 52 of IFRS 2, ‘Share-based payment’ (details of the number and weighted-average exercise prices of 

share options, and how the fair value of goods or services received was determined);

›   IFRS 7, ‘Financial Instruments: Disclosures’;

›   Paragraphs 91 to 99 of IFRS 13, ‘Fair value measurement’ (disclosure of valuation techniques and inputs used for fair value 

measurement of assets and liabilities);

›   Paragraph 38 of IAS 1, ‘Presentation of financial statements’ comparative information requirements in respect of:

–  paragraph 79(a)(iv) of IAS 1;

–  paragraph 73(e) of IAS 16 Property, plant and equipment;

›   The following paragraphs of IAS 1, ‘Presentation of financial statements’:

–  10(d), (statement of cash flows)

–   10(f) (a statement of financial position as at the beginning of the preceding period when an entity applies an accounting policy 
retrospectively or makes a retrospective restatement of items in its financial statements, or when it reclassifies items in its 
financial statements),

–  16 (statement of compliance with all IFRS),

–  38A (requirement for minimum of two primary statements, including cash flow statements),

–  38B-D (additional comparative information),

–  40A-D (requirements for a third statement of financial position)

–  111 (cash flow statement information), and

–  134-136 (capital management disclosures)

›   IAS 7, ‘Statement of cash flows’;

›   Paragraph 30 and 31 of IAS 8 ‘Accounting policies, changes in accounting estimates and errors’ (requirement for the disclosure of 

information when an entity has not applied a new IFRS that has been issued but is not yet effective);

›   Paragraph 17 of IAS 24, ‘Related party disclosures’ (key management compensation); and

›   The requirements in IAS 24, ‘Related party disclosures’ to disclose related party transactions entered into between two or more 

members of a group

The accounting policies of the Company are the same as for the Group. 

inspiration-healthcare.com57

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

1 Accounting Policies continued

Basis of consolidation 
The financial statements of the Group consolidate the financial statements of Inspiration Healthcare Group plc and its 
subsidiary undertakings (together referred to as the ‘Group’) up to 31 January each year. All subsidiaries have a reporting 
date of 31 January.

Subsidiaries are entities controlled by the Group. Control exists when the Group has the power, directly or indirectly, to 
govern the financial and operating policies of an entity so as to obtain benefits from its activities. In assessing control, 
potential voting rights that are currently exercisable or convertible are taken into account. 

The financial statements of subsidiaries are included in the consolidated financial statements from the date that control 
commences until the date that control ceases, in accordance with IFRS 10. Intra group transactions and balances, and 
any unrealised gains or losses arising from intra group transactions, are eliminated in preparing the consolidated financial 
statements. 

Going concern basis 

On the basis of current financial projections and available funds, the Directors are satisfied that the Group and Company 
have adequate resources to continue in operation for the foreseeable future and, therefore, consider it appropriate to prepare 
the financial statements on the going concern basis. Further information on the Group’s cash resources is given in note 15.

Judgements

The Group applies judgement in how it applies its accounting policies, which do not involve estimation, but could materially 
affect the numbers disclosed in these financial statements. The key accounting judgements, without estimation, that have 
been applied in these financial statements are as follows: 

›  Taxation Provision

In arriving at the tax provision required at the balance sheet date management make a judgement on the accuracy of 
preliminary tax computations prior to their submission and acceptance by the tax authorities. As a significant investor 
in research and development expenditure this includes judgement on the accuracy of the calculation of R&D tax credits 
included within the preliminary computation. Although all endeavours are made to reflect the correct R&D tax credits in 
the preliminary tax computation the final tax computation submitted to the relevant tax authorities may differ. See note 
7(c) for the impact on the tax provision as at 31 January 2019 of R&D tax credit claims made for the year.

›  Investment In Neuroprotexeon Limited (“NPXe”)

The Group holds its investment in NPXe at cost. The Group considers that the best evidence of fair value of the 
investment would be the market price for the shares or a transaction price for the company. However, as NPXe is not a 
publicly traded company it is the Board’s judgement a reliable fair value assessment cannot be obtained. It is the Board’s 
judgement that, due to announcements made during the year by NPXe regarding distribution agreements signed and NPXe 
seeking to complete an IPO on AIM, no impairment of the value held on the balance sheet is considered necessary. 

›  Capitalisation of development costs

In order to capitalise product development costs, there is a requirement for detailed analysis of the technical feasibility 
and judgement on the commercial viability of the project. The Board regularly reviews this judgement in respect of 
relevant development projects. Commercial viability is based on the future prospects for revenue generated through sales 
of the products that are being developed and expected costs to complete the development, as well as costs to make the 
products. These estimates are based on historical experience and other factors, including the achievement and timing 
of regulatory and registration requirements as well other expectations of future events that are believed to be reasonable 
under the circumstances. Actual results may not be in line with the estimates made. The value of product development 
costs capitalised during the year was £276,000 (2018: £688,000). Note 10 provides more information on capitalised 
development costs. 

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 201958

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

1 Accounting Policies continued

Accounting Estimates

The Group is required to make judgements based on estimates and assumptions concerning the future in order to fully 
comply with adopted IFRSs. These judgements and estimates are based on historical experience and other factors, including 
expectations of future events that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances. Although these estimates are based 
on management’s best knowledge of the amount, events or actions, actual results ultimately may differ from those estimates. 
Estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis.

Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the year in which the estimate is revised and in any future periods affected. 
The following are areas that are deemed to require the most complex judgements about matters that have potential material 
impacts on the amounts recognised in the financial statements. 

The key estimates applicable to the financial statements, which have a significant risk of resulting in a material adjustments in 
future financial years are as follows:

›  Deferred taxation 

Judgement is required on whether future profitability is likely in making the decision whether or not to recognise a deferred 
tax asset. The Group has a potential deferred tax asset which has not been recognised due to the uncertainty of the timing 
of utilising tax losses. Unused trading losses totalling £7,596,000 arose in Inditherm plc prior to the reverse acquisition 
by Inspiration Healthcare Limited and change of name to Inspiration Healthcare Group plc in 2015. Following a hive-down 
exercise undertaken with effect from 31 January 2017 the losses have been transferred to Inspiration Healthcare Ltd. There 
is no time limit on utilising the brought forward losses, but they can only be set-off against profits generated from the same 
trading activities they were generated from. Two of the major products in the range have only recently been relaunched. 
Assessment of future taxable profit of relevant trading activities is based on estimates of future revenue streams (in particular 
from the recently launched products), costs, investment in research and development together with related assumptions on 
tax credits receivable on such expenditure, amongst other things. Actual taxable profit and the timing of utilising the brought 
forward losses may vary from the estimates made. The analysis and assessment of the likelihood of utilising the losses is 
reviewed on an annual basis. Should all losses be able to be utilised in the future the amount of unrecognised deferred tax  
as at 31 January 2019 is £1,291,000 (2018: £1,291,000). See also note 21 on Deferred Tax.

›  Impairment – Carrying value of Capitalised Development Costs 

The fair value of these assets is determined by discounting estimated future net cash flows generated by the asset where no 
active market for the asset exists. The use of different assumptions for the expectations of future cash flows and the discount 
rate could change the valuation of the intangible asset. The discount rate takes account of the current market conditions and 
this has been applied as a pre-tax discount factor to obtain current value. 

Impairment testing is an area involving management’s judgement, requiring assessment as to whether the carrying value of 
each asset can be supported by the net present value of estimated future cash flows derived from such asset using cash flow 
projections which have been discounted at an appropriate rate. In calculating the net present value of the future cash flows, 
certain assumptions are required to be made in respect of highly uncertain matters including management’s expectations of:

	 ›  the selection of discount rates to reflect the risks involved; 

	 ›  future revenue and costs; 

	 ›  long term growth rates. 

Changing the assumptions selected by management, in particular the discount rate and growth rate assumptions used in the 
cash flow projections, could significantly affect the Group’s impairment evaluation and hence results. The net book value of 
capitalised development costs at as 31 January 2019 is £1,155,000 (2018: £1,009,000). See note 10 for more information on 
capitalised development costs.

Additionally, judgement is required on the appropriate amortisation rates applied to the capitalised product development costs 
of completed developments, which are based on estimates of useful lives of between 5 to 10 years and residual values of the 
assets involved. Actual product lives may vary from estimates made. Amortisation of product development costs during the year 
was £130,000 (2018: £7,000). For each year that the actual product life differs from the estimate made, if applied equally 
across all such developments, the amortisation charge for the year would vary by £22,000 (2018: £1,000).

inspiration-healthcare.com59

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

1 Accounting Policies continued

›  Share based payments 

The Group has issued share options to Executive Directors and other key employees. In arriving at the charge to the Income 
Statement for Share Based Payments the Board have to apply judgement on the likelihood of the performance conditions of 
the options being achieved. In doing so the Board takes account of a range of potential outcomes based on annual budgets, 
future projections and other factors. The Share based payment charge for the year was £71,000 (2018: £20,000).

Property, plant and equipment
Items of property, plant and equipment are measured at historical cost less accumulated depreciation and any impairment. Costs 
include expenditure that is directly attributable to the acquisition of the asset. Depreciation is provided to write off the cost, 
less estimated residual value of property, plant and equipment by equal instalments over their estimated useful economic lives. 
The assets residual values and useful economic lives are reviewed, and adjusted as appropriate, at each year end date. When 
parts of an item of property, plant and equipment have different useful lives, they are accounted for as separate items (major 
components) of property, plant and equipment.

The following rates are applied:

Leasehold improvements 

Over the term of the lease

Fixtures and fittings 

10% – 25% per annum

Motor vehicles 

25% per annum

Plant, machinery and office equipment 

15% – 33% per annum

Leased assets
Leases or hire purchase agreements under the terms of which the Group assumes substantially all the risks and rewards of 
ownership are classified as finance leases. Upon initial recognition the leased asset is measured at an amount equal to the lower 
of its fair value and the present value of the minimum lease payments. Subsequent to initial recognition, the asset is accounted 
for in accordance with the accounting policy applicable to that asset.

Obligations under finance leases are included in liabilities net of the finance charge allocated to future years. The finance 
element of the rental payment is charged to the Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income as a finance expense so as to 
produce a constant periodic rate of charge on the net obligations outstanding at each year end. Other leases are operating leases 
and the leased asset is not recognised on the Consolidated Statement of Financial Position.

Assets acquired by finance lease are depreciated over the lease term or their useful lives.

Payments made under operating leases, net of any incentives received from the lessor, are recognised in the Consolidated 
Statement of Comprehensive Income on a straight line basis over the term of the lease.

Intangible assets and goodwill 
Intangible assets are recognised if it is possible to demonstrate that there will be future economic benefits attributable to the 
asset, the cost of the asset can be measured reliably, the asset is separately identifiable and there is control over the use of 
the asset. All intangible assets recognised are considered to have finite lives (unless otherwise stated) and are amortised on 
a straight line basis over the period over which the Group expects to benefit from these assets, and included within operating 
expenses. Provision is made for any impairment in the carrying amount of the intangible asset if applicable. 

Intellectual property 

Purchased intellectual property rights are capitalised and amortised over management’s estimate of their useful economic life or 
term of the relevant contract up to a maximum of 10 years. 

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 201960

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

1 Accounting Policies continued

Goodwill 

Goodwill arises when the fair value of the consideration for the business exceeds the fair value of the net assets acquired. 
Intangible assets are capitalised separately from goodwill as part of a business combination, only if the value can be measured 
reliably on initial recognition and if the future economic benefits are expected to flow to the Group. Goodwill is not amortised but 
is tested annually for impairment, or more frequently when events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount 
may be impaired. Goodwill is stated at fair value less any accumulated impairment losses. 

Acquisition related intangible assets 

Net assets acquired as part of a business combination includes an assessment of the fair value of separately identifiable 
acquisition-related intangible assets. In addition to other assets, liabilities and contingent liabilities purchased. These are 
amortised over their useful lives which are individually assessed. 

Capitalised development costs

Where the criteria for capitalisation in IAS 38 ‘Intangible assets’ are met, costs incurred are capitalised and amortised over 
their useful economic lives from the point the products are launched to market. The capitalised values are reviewed against the 
discounted future economic value, and adjusted as appropriate, at each year end date. 

Development expenditure on an individual project is recognised as an intangible asset when the Group can demonstrate:

›   the technical and commercial feasibility of completing the intangible asset so that the asset will be available for use or sale; 

›  its intention to complete and its ability and intention to use or sell the developed asset; 

›  its future economic benefits are probable; 

›  the availability of adequate technical, financial and other resources to complete the asset; and 

›  the ability to measure reliably the expenditure attributable to the asset during development. 

Following initial recognition of the development expenditure as an asset, the asset is carried at cost less any accumulated amortisation 
and accumulated impairment losses. Amortisation of the asset begins when development is complete and the asset is available for use. 
It is amortised over the period of expected future benefit from the asset which varies between 5 and 10 years. Amortisation is recorded 
in operating expenses. During the period of development, the asset is tested for impairment annually.

Research costs

Research expenditure is written off to the Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income in the year in which it is incurred.

Software costs

Where the criteria for capitalisation in IAS 38 ‘Intangible assets’ are met, software costs incurred are capitalised and amortised 
over their useful economic lives from the point that the software is brought into service. Estimated useful life varies between  
3 and 5 years.

Impairment 

Intangible assets and goodwill are considered to be impaired if objective evidence suggests that one or more events have had a 
negative effect on the estimated future cash flows of that asset. If any such indication exists, the asset’s recoverable amount is 
estimated. For goodwill and intangible assets that have an indefinite useful life, the recoverable amount is estimated at each year 
end date. Impairment losses are recognised in the Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income. 

Calculation of recoverable amount 

Assets that are subject to amortisation or depreciation are reviewed for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances 
indicate that the carrying amount may not be recoverable. An impairment loss would be recognised whenever the carrying 
amount of an intangible asset or its cash generating unit exceeds its recoverable amount. 

The recoverable amount is the greater of the asset’s fair value less costs to sell and its value in use. In assessing an asset’s 
value in use, the estimated future cash flows are discounted to their present value using a pre-tax discount rate that reflects 
current market assessments of the time value of money and the risks specific to the asset. 

inspiration-healthcare.com61

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

1 Accounting Policies continued

Inventories 
Inventories are stated at the lower of cost and net realisable value. Cost comprises direct material and, where applicable, direct 
labour costs and those overheads that have been incurred in bringing inventories to their present location and condition on a 
first in first out basis. 

Net realisable value is based on estimated selling price less additional costs to completion or disposal. Allowance is made for 
obsolete, defective and slow moving items based on estimated future usage. 

Recognition and valuation of financial assets and liabilities 

Cash and cash equivalents 

Cash and cash equivalents include cash at bank and in hand, deposits held on call with banks, other short term highly liquid 
investments with original maturities of three months or less, and bank overdrafts which are repayable on demand. 

Investments 

Investments held are stated at cost less provision for any impairment in value and are classified as financial asset at fair value 
through profit or loss.

This classification depends on the Group’s business model for managing the financial assets.

Trade and other receivables 

Trade and other receivables are recognised and carried at the lower of their original invoiced value and recoverable amount.  
An impairment is made with reference to the expected loss method. The recoverable amount is calculated as the present value 
of estimated future cash flows. Estimated future cash flows are not discounted due to the relatively short period of time between 
recognition of trade receivables and receipt of cash. 

Trade and other payables 

Trade payables are obligations to pay for goods and services. The value of trade payables is the value that would be payable to 
settle the liability at the year end date. 

Provisions 
Provisions for liabilities are made where the timing or amount of settlement is uncertain. A provision is recognised when: the 
Group has a present legal or constructive obligation as a result of past events; it is probable that an outflow of resources will 
be required to settle the obligation; and the amount can be reliably estimated. Provisions are not discounted on the grounds of 
materiality as permitted under IAS 37 ‘Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets’. 

Share capital 
Ordinary shares are classified as equity. Incremental costs directly attributable to the issue of new shares are shown in equity as 
a deduction, net of tax, from the proceeds. 

Foreign currency transactions and balances 
Transactions in foreign currencies are translated to Sterling at the foreign exchange rate ruling at the date of the transaction. 
Monetary assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currencies at the year end date are retranslated to Sterling at the foreign 
exchange rate ruling at that date. Any exchange differences arising on the settlement of monetary items or on translating 
monetary items at rates different from those at which they were initially recorded are recognised in the Consolidated Statement 
of Comprehensive Income in the year in which they arise. 

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 201962

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

1 Accounting Policies continued

Derivatives and hedging activities
The Group adopted IFRS 9 Financial Instruments hedging requirements with effect from the year ended 31 January 2019.  
All hedges previously accounted for under IAS 39 continue to qualify for hedge accounting under IFRS 9.

The Group uses forward currency contracts to hedge its exposure to the financial risks of changes in foreign exchange rates, in 
relation to Euro inventory purchases during the year. The hedging gains and losses are ultimately recognised in profit or loss 
through cost of sales during the year. The Group does not use derivative financial instruments for speculative purposes.

At inception of the hedge relationship, the Group documents the economic relationship between hedging instruments and 
hedged items including whether changes in the cash flows of the hedging instruments are expected to offset changes in cash 
flows of hedged items. The Group documents its risk management objective and strategy for undertaking its hedge transactions.

Forward currency contracts are fair valued at each balance sheet date. Changes in the fair value on the forward currency 
contracts that are designated and effective as hedges of future cash flows are recognised directly in equity. Amounts deferred in 
equity are recognised in the income statement in the same period in which the hedged item affects the income statement. 

Movements in the hedging reserve in shareholders’ equity are shown in note 22. The full fair value of a hedging derivative 
is classified as a current asset or liability when the remaining maturity of the hedged item is less than 12 months. Trading 
derivatives are classified as a current asset or liability.

Employee benefits 

Defined contribution pension plans 

The costs of contributing to defined contribution stakeholder pension scheme and employees’ personal pension schemes are 
charged to the Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income in the year in which they relate. The Group has no further legal 
or constructive obligations once the contributions have been paid. 

Share-based incentives 
The Group operates an equity settled share scheme for certain employees. The cost of equity settled share based payments is 
measured at fair value at the date of grant, excluding the effect of non-market based vesting conditions. The cost is recognised  
in the income statement on a straight-line basis over the vesting period with the corresponding amount credited to equity, based 
on an estimate of the number of shares that will eventually vest. The fair values are measured using the Black-Scholes model. 
Please refer to note 25 for more information. 

Grants 
Revenue based grants are credited as other operating income to the Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income against 
related expenditure while grants of a capital nature are treated as deferred income and are transferred to the Consolidated 
Statement of Comprehensive Income over the expected useful lives of the relevant assets.

Revenue recognition 
The Group has adopted IFRS 15 Revenue From Contracts With Customers with effect from the year commencing 1 February 2018.  
The accounting policy for revenue recognition has been updated to reflect the interpretations, judgements and disclosures 
required by IFRS 15. We have applied the modified retrospective transition method and no transition adjustments have been 
made to the recognition of revenue as there has been no impact on the timing of recognition of our revenue compared to under 
the previous accounting standard (IAS 18/11). 

The Group either recognises revenue from contracts with customers at a point in time or over time as outlined below.

inspiration-healthcare.com63

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

1 Accounting Policies continued

Under IFRS 15 any one the 3 criteria below must be met in order for revenue to be categorised as “over time”. If none are met 
then the transaction is deemed to be at a “point in time”.

›  Customer receives benefits as performed/another would not need to re-perform

›  Create/enhance an asset a customer controls

›  Does not create an asset with alternative use and a right to payment for work to date 

The Group recognises revenue at a point in time where there is a distinct obligation to transfer goods to the customer, none 
of the above criteria are met and the transfer to the customer of control of the goods has taken place, which is no different to 
previous policy. The Group exercises judgement on the point at which transfer of control has taken place, which is, dependent 
upon individual contract shipment terms, typically assessed to be when risk in the goods has been assumed by the customer. 
The goods supplied are primarily medical devices or parts used in medical devices.

The Group recognises revenue over time where there is an obligation to transfer a service to the customer. This applies to the 
provision of technical support of products which are owned by the customer, under a service contract running for a contract 
period, which provides for service visits as well as attendance for non-routine faults during the term of the contract. The Group 
recognises the revenue evenly over the duration of the contract as the timing of the visits and provision of the service is not 
predetermined and this, in the judgement of the Directors, is the most appropriate reflection of the service being provided. 

The transaction price applied to recognise revenue is the price reflected in the sales invoice submitted to the customer, both for 
at the point of sale and over time which are invoiced separately.

See note 3 for more information on revenue recognition.

Revenue comprises the fair value of the consideration received or receivable from the sale of goods and services in the ordinary 
course of the Group’s activities. Revenue is shown net of value added tax, returns, rebates and discounts. 

Revenue is recognised when title of the goods passes to the customer or when the services have been provided. 

The revenue on service and maintenance contracts is assessed at the commencement of the contract and provided the outcome 
of the contract can be assessed with reasonable certainty, the income is recognised over the life of the contract on a straight-line 
apportioned basis. 

Provisions for costs are charged to the Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income when incurred. No provision is made 
for future costs on service and maintenance contracts. Provision is made in full for any losses as soon as they can be foreseen. 
Any provisions for foreseeable losses in excess of contract balances are included in current liabilities. 

The performance of products is warranted against clearly defined performance specifications established by reference to the 
technical and development testing carried out at the manufacturing facility. The estimated cost of the work to be performed 
under warranty on items sold by the Group would be provided for if management were aware of any field issues that needed 
rectification. At 31 January 2019 no provision is required (2018: £nil) and management are not aware of any material field 
issues that would require a provision to be made for products supplied for distribution outside of the manufacturers’ warranties.

Segment reporting 
An operating segment is a component of the Group that engages in business activities from which it may earn revenues and incur 
expenses, including revenue and expenses that relate to transactions with any of the Group’s other components. The Board of 
Directors consider that it is appropriate to report results as one single business segment, i.e. Critical Care Medical Devices. This is 
consistent with management accounting information reported regularly to the Board. The Group’s Chief Operating Decision Maker 
is considered to be the Board. 

Exceptional items 
Items that are considered significant by virtue of their size or their nature, or that are non-recurring, are disclosed on the face 
of the Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income as exceptional items to enable a full understanding of the underlying 
performance of the Group. 

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 201964

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

1 Accounting Policies continued

Taxation 
Tax on the profit or loss for the year comprises the current and deferred tax. Tax is recognised in the Consolidated Statement  
of Comprehensive Income except to the extent that it relates to items directly recognised in equity, in which case it is recognised 
in equity. 

Current tax is the expected tax payable on the taxable income for the year, using tax rates enacted or substantively enacted at 
the year end date and any adjustment in respect of previous years. 

Deferred tax is provided on temporary differences between the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities for financial reporting 
purposes and the amounts used for taxation purposes. The following temporary differences are not provided for: 

›   the initial recognition of goodwill 

›   the initial recognition of assets and liabilities that affect neither accounting nor taxable profit other than in a business 

combination; and 

›  the differences relating to investments in subsidiaries to the extent that they will probably not reverse in the foreseeable future. 

The amount of deferred tax provided is based on the expected amount of realisation or settlement of the carrying amount of 
assets and liabilities using tax rates enacted or substantively enacted at the year end date. A deferred tax asset is recognised 
only to the extent that it is probable that future taxable profits will be available against which the temporary differences can be 
utilised within a reasonable future timescale.

New standards, amendments and interpretations 
The Group has applied the following standards and amendments for the first time for their annual reporting period commencing  
1 February 2018:

›  IFRS 9 Financial Instruments

›  IFRS 15 Revenue from contracts with Customers

The Group had to change its accounting policies following the adoption of IFRS 9 and IFRS15. No material impact to the 
accounts was noted.

The following accounting standards and interpretations, issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (‘IASB’) or IFRIC 
(as endorsed by the European Union), that are effective or endorsed but not yet effective for the first time in the current financial 
year are:

›  IFRS 16 Leases – effective years commencing after 1 January 2019

The Group is required to adopt IFRS 16 Leases from 1 February 2019 and the estimated initial impact to the consolidated 
financial statements on adoption has been reviewed.

IFRS 16 Leases
IFRS 16 deals with the classification, measurement and recognition of leases. The Group has both reviewed and discussed the 
terms and conditions of its current lease and implied lease contracts. On review, the Group considers the implementation of 
IFRS 16 under the modified retrospective approach will have an immaterial impact on profit before tax, operating expense will 
decrease between £125K to £175k whilst depreciation will increase between £125k to £175k and interest will increase between 
£10k and £30k. EBITDA will increase between £125k to £175k for the year ending 31 January 2020. Both Current Assets and 
Current Liabilities are expected to increase between £500k to £600k on adoption as at 1 February 2019 with an immaterial 
impact to Net Assets.

inspiration-healthcare.com65

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

1 Accounting Policies continued

Alternative financial measures
In the reporting of its financial performance, the Group uses certain measures that are not defined under IFRS, the Generally 
Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) under which the Group reports. The Directors believe that these non-GAAP measures 
assist with the understanding of the performance of the business. These non-GAAP measures are not a substitute for, or superior 
to, any IFRS measures of performance but they have been included as the Directors consider them to be an important means of 
comparing performance year-on-year and they include key measures used within the business for assessing performance.

2 Segmental analysis

Inspiration Healthcare Group operates in a single business segment: Critical Care Medical Devices. Within this segment the 
Group’s sales activities are split into three market sectors: Critical Care, Operating Theatre and Home Healthcare and these 
sectors are defined and reported in Our business strategy and the Operating and financial review sections of the strategic report. 
There is no inter-sector trading.

The sectors are defined in the Our Business Strategy on pages 8 to 14. 

3 Revenue 

The Group derives revenue from the transfer of goods and services over time and at a point in time in the following 
geographical split.

Geographical analysis of revenue for the years ended 31 January 2019 and 31 January 2018 is as follows: 

Domestic
– UK
– Ireland
International
– Europe
– Asia Pacific
– Middle East & Africa
– Americas

Total

Significant categories of revenue

Revenue recognised at a Point in Time
– Inspiration Branded Products
– Distributor Products
– Other
Revenue recognised Over Time
– Technical Support

Total

No single customer accounted for more than 10% of revenue.

2019
£’000

9,772
351

2,853
320
782
1,409

2018
£’000

10,338
384

2,759
352
795
867

15,487

15,495

2019
£’000

7,180
6,341
272

1,694

2018
£’000

6,949
6,500
212

1,834

15,487

15,495

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 201966

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

3 Revenue continued

All revenue reported by the Group and the Company is from contracts with customers.

Following the adoption of IFRS 15 Revenue From Contracts With Customers with effect from the year commencing 1 February 
2018 no transition adjustments have been made to the recognition of revenue as there has been no impact on the timing of 
recognition of our revenue compared to under the previous accounting standard. The additional disclosures required by  
IFRS 15 are included in this note 3, in note 1 Accounting Policies, and other notes forming part of the financial statements   
where appropriate.

The relationship between the timing of the satisfaction of the Group’s performance obligations and the typical timing of payments 
from contracts with customers is as follows:

›   For revenue recognised at a point in time a receivable is recognised when the goods are delivered, which completes our 

performance obligation. At this point in time the consideration is unconditional because only the passage of time is required 
before payment is due. Payment is typically due between 30 and 60 days following delivery of the goods. 

›   For revenue recognised over time, payment is typically received annually in advance of the service contract commencing.  

The performance obligations are met over the duration of the contract. A Contract Liability is recognised and adjusted at each 
reporting period to reflect unsatisfied performance obligations based on a straight-lined apportioned basis over the term of the 
customer contract. Included in revenue for the year is £328,000 which had been included in Contract Liabilities at 1 February 
2018 (2018: £368,000). See note 20 on Contract Liabilities for more information. 

The Group does not currently have any material value of contracts where the period between the transfer of the goods or 
services to the customer and payment by the customer exceeds one year. As a consequence, the Group does not adjust any of 
the transaction prices for the time value of money. Contract Liabilities are detailed in note 20.

The contracts from customers do not include any variable consideration. There are no obligations for returns or refunds other 
than any required by law in the United Kingdom.

Costs associated with the fulfilment of the contracts from customers are either, in the case of revenue recognised at a point in 
time, recognised at the same time as the revenue is recognised, or, in the of case revenue recognised over time, as incurred.  
No costs of obtaining contracts are capitalised.

inspiration-healthcare.comNotes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

4 Expenses by nature 

Inventories recognised as an expense
Other cost of sales
Employee benefit expense
Depreciation of property, plant and equipment
– owned assets
– leased assets
Amortisation of intangible fixed assets
Trade receivables loss allowance/(recovery)
Loss on disposal of intangible and tangible assets
Foreign exchange losses
Operating lease rentals
R&D expenditure
Other expenses

Total cost of sales and operating expenses

The numbers above include:
Auditors’ remuneration
Group audit services – statutory
Company audit services – statutory

Total audit services – statutory

Group non-audit services
Company non-audit services

Total non-audit services 

67

2018
£’000

8,306
403
3,611

146
2
82
(2)
10
18
181
30
1,504

2019
£’000

8,024
421
3,749

151
–
213
7
5
6
168
17
1,513

14,274

14,291

32
26

58

–
1

1

27
26

53

–
6

6

Non-audit services provided were £1,000 for a subscription to web-based accounting products and services. 

During FY2018 non-audit services provided were £5,000 for share option scheme training and £1,000 for a subscription to 
web-based accounting products and services.

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 201968

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

5 Employees 

Group

Company

Aggregate employee costs are as follows:
Wages and salaries
Social security costs
Other pension costs
Share option charge

Total

2019
£’000

3,205
366
107
71

3,749

2018
£’000

3,144
356
91
20

3,611

2019
£’000

2018
£’000

90
9
–
71

170

194
16
9
20

239

Employee costs include the costs of the Executive Directors but not the Non-executive Directors, along with severance payments of 
£nil (2018: £23,000).

Company employment costs are recharged from a subsidiary company, Inspiration Healthcare Limited.

Monthly average number of persons employed (including Executive Directors and excluding agency staff) analysed by category:

Management and Administration
Sales
Development and Quality

Total

No employees are directly employed by the Company.

Key management emoluments (including Executive Directors)

Aggregate emoluments:
Emoluments of the Directors and key management personnel
Contributions to defined contribution pension scheme on their behalf

Emoluments of highest paid Director
Contributions to defined contribution pension scheme

Group

2019

2018

26
30
11

67

27
30
6

63

Group

Company

2019
£’000

2018
£’000

2019
£’000

2018
£’000

546
19

565

172
7

179

592
19

611

190
7

197

–
–

–

–
–

–

91
3

94

25
1

26

The number of Directors for whom retirement benefits are accruing under defined contribution pension schemes during  
the year were 3 (2018: 3).

No Directors exercised share options during the year (2018: none).

This note should be read in conjunction with the Directors’ Remuneration Report on pages 42 to 44.

inspiration-healthcare.comNotes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

6 Finance income and costs

Finance income
Bank interest receivable

Finance costs
Other interest payable

7 Income tax

(a)  Analysis of tax charge for the year

Domestic current year tax*
UK corporation tax –

current year
prior year adjustment

Total current tax expense/(credit)

Deferred tax (see note 21)

origination and reversal of temporary timing differences
prior year adjustment

Total deferred tax

Tax expense/(credit) on profit on ordinary activities

* All tax in both 2019 and 2018 arose in the UK.

(b)  Analysis of current tax assets and liabilities

Net liability at the beginning of the year (see note 16)

Tax payments

Final payments relating to prior year
Payments on account relating to current year

Total tax payments made during the year

Tax receipts in relation to prior year

Current year UK corporation tax charge
Other
Prior year adjustment

Net asset/(liability) at the end of the year (see note 16)

69

2019
£’000

2018
£’000

6

–

–

(2)

2019
£’000

2018
£’000

149
(104)

45

15
56

71

116

2019
£’000

(70)

70
77

147      

–

(149)
(2)
104

30

145
(187)

(42)

17
4

21

(21)

2018
£’000

(77)

50
76

126

(161)

(145)
–
187

(70)

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 201970

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

7 Income Tax continued

(c)  Factors affecting tax charge for the year
The tax assessed for the year is lower (2018: lower) than the standard rate of corporation tax in the UK 19.00% (2018: 19.16%) 
as explained below:

Profit on ordinary activities before taxation

Tax using the effective UK corporation tax rate of  
19.00% (2018: 19.16%)
Effects of:
Fixed asset differences
Non-deductible expenses
Timing differences
Additional deduction for research and development
Adjustments to tax charge in respect of prior years

Total tax expense/(credit)

Effective tax rate

Effective tax rate adjusted for significant prior  
year amendments

2019
£’000

1,219

232

(5)
14
(14)
(63)
(48) 

116

2018
£’000

1,202

230

–
9
–
(77)
(183) 

(21)

Effective Tax Rate

2019
%

2018
%

19.0

(0.4)
1.2
(1.2)
(5.1)
(4.0)

9.5

13.5

19.2

–
0.7
–
(6.4)
(15.2)

(1.7)

13.5

The effective tax rate excluding significant prior year amendments are similar for both FY2019 and FY2018. The largest factor 
impacting the adjusted effective tax rate is the value of R&D tax credits. This depends upon the level of expenditure incurred 
in research and development on qualifying projects, which may vary from year to year. Amendments in respect of prior years 
largely reflect the difference between the tax calculation for accounts purposes and the final tax returns. The main differences 
relate to claims for qualifying R&D tax credits. 

The Research and Development Expenditure Credit (RDEC) scheme for large companies became compulsory from 1 April 
2016. The RDEC provides relief against the corporation tax liability for the company of 11% on the amount of qualifying  
R&D expenditure.

Changes to the UK corporation tax rates were announced as part of the Chancellor’s Budget on 16 March 2016. The change 
announced was to reduce the main rate of corporation tax to 17% from 1 April 2020. 

As the change to 17% had been substantively enacted by the balance sheet date, deferred taxes at the balance sheet date have 
been measured using these enacted tax rates and reflected in these financial statements.

(d)  Factors that may affect future tax charges
The Group has gross unused losses estimated at £7,596,000. Brought forward losses transferred to the Group due to the 
reverse acquisition amount to £7,596,000 and are potentially available for relief against future trading profits generated from 
the same trade. See note 21 Deferred Tax, for more information. 

inspiration-healthcare.com 
 
 
 
 
 
71

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

8 Earnings per ordinary share 

Basic earnings per share for the year is calculated by dividing the profit attributable to ordinary shareholders for the year after 
tax by the weighted average number of shares in issue.

Basic diluted earnings per share is calculated by adjusting the weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue to assume 
conversion of all potential dilutive ordinary shares.

Profit
Profit attributable to equity holders of the company

Numerator for underlying earnings per share calculation

2019
£’000

1,103

1,103

2018
£’000

1,223

1,223

The weighted average number of shares in issue and the diluted weighted average number of shares in issue were  
as follows:

Shares
Weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue during the year for the  
purposes of basic earnings per share
Dilutive effect of potential ordinary shares:
Share options

Diluted weighted average number of shares in issue during the year
for the purposes of diluted earnings per share

2019

2018

30,667,548

30,667,548

316,520

66,449

30,984,068

30,733,997

The number of share options have been prorated for the time they have been in place, see note 25 for further information.
The basic and diluted earnings per share for the year are as follows:

Earnings per share

Adjust for:
Significant prior year tax amendments

Underlying earnings per share

Basic
2019
pence

3.60

(0.16)

3.44

Diluted
2019
pence

3.56

(0.16)

3.40

Basic
2018
pence

3.99

(0.52)

3.47

Diluted
2018
pence

3.98

(0.52)

3.46

An underlying earnings per share and a underlying diluted earnings per share have also been calculated as in the opinion of the 
Directors this will allow shareholders to gain a clearer understanding of the trading performance of the Group. 

9 Dividends 

There are no immediate plans to pay dividends by Inspiration Healthcare Group plc. Further information on dividend policy can 
be found in the Chief Executive Officer’s Review on page 21. 

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 2019 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
72

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

10 Intangible assets

Group

Cost
At 1 February 2017
Capitalised in the year
Disposals in the year

At 1 February 2018

Capitalised in the year
Disposals in the year

At 31 January 2019

Amortisation
At 1 February 2017
Charge in the year
Disposals in the year

At 1 February 2018

Charge in the year
Disposals in the year

At 31 January 2019

Net book value 
At 31 January 2019

At 31 January 2018

Company

Cost
At 31 January 2019 & 31 January 2018

Amortisation
At 31 January 2019 & 31 January 2018

Net book value 
At 31 January 2019 & 31 January 2018

Development
costs
£’000

Intellectual
property
£’000

Software
costs
£’000

456
688
(126)

1,018

276
–

1,294

128
7
(126)

9

130
–

139

1,155

1,009

661
–
(385)

276

–
–

276

655
5
(385)

275

1
–

276

–

1

285
68
–

353

24
(5)

372

84
70
–

154

82
(2)

234

138

199

Intellectual
property
£’000

136

136

–

Total
£’000

1,402
756
(511)

1,647

300
(5)

1,942

867
82
(511)

438

213
(2)

649

1,293

1,209

Total
£’000

136

136

–

Intangible assets are amortised on a straight line basis and the amortisation is included within Operating expenses within 
the Group’s Consolidated Income Statement on page 50.

Software costs relating to the ERP system are held at cost £328,000 (2018: £317,000), net book value £112,000  
(2018: £171,000) and have a remaining economic life of 2 years.

Intellectual property arising on reverse acquisition have been previously reviewed for impairment and fully impaired in 
2016. This remains appropriate.

inspiration-healthcare.comNotes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

11 Property, plant and equipment 

Group

Cost
At 1 February 2017
Additions in the year
Disposals in year

At 1 February 2018

Additions in the year
Disposals in year

At 31 January 2019

Depreciation
At 1 February 2017
Charge in the year
Disposals in year

At 1 February 2018

Charge in the year
Disposals in year

At 31 January 2019

Net book value 
At 31 January 2019

At 31 January 2018

Leasehold
improvements
£’000

Fixtures
and
fittings
£’000

Plant,
machinery,
office
equipment
£’000

Motor
vehicles
£’000

226
41
–

267

7
–

274

6
29
–

35

28
–

63

211

232

264
9
(214)

59

3
–

62

258
2
(214)

46

3
–

49

13

13

993
173
(302)

864

91
(42)

913

854
114
(292)

676

114
(39)

751

162

188

33
31
(23)

41

–
(10)

31

33
3
(23)

13

6
(10)

9

22

28

73

Total
£’000

1,516
254
(539)

1,231

101
(52)

1,280

1,151
148
(529)

770

151
(49)

872

408

461

Depreciation charged for the financial year is split between cost of sales £17,000 (2018: £13,000) and operating expenses 
£134,000 (2018 £135,000) in the Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income. 

Plant, machinery and office equipment includes leased assets of £nil (2018: £24,000) with a net book value of £nil (2018: £nil). 
The related depreciation charge for the year was £nil (2018: £2,000). 

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 201974

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

12 Investments

Group

Financial asset at fair value through profit or loss 

Cost
At 31 January 2019 and 2018

Net book value 
At 31 January 2019 and 2018

£’000

111

111

The Group is an investor in Neuroprotexeon Limited, a drug device technology company which is pioneering the use of the 
inert gas, Xenon, as a neuro-protectant.

The Group has a holding of 9.6% (8.6% on a fully diluted basis taking into account share options and loan conversion rights of 
other investors) at 31 January 2019. 

The Group has the right, amongst other conditions, to appoint a Director. Neil Campbell resigned as a Non-executive Director 
of Neuroprotexeon Limited on 21 June 2018.

The investment in Neuroprotexeon is held at cost, see Judgements section within note 1.

An impairment review was carried out by the Directors at 31 January 2019 and no impairment is considered necessary.

Company

Cost
At 31 January 2019 and 2018

Net book value 
At 31 January 2019 and 2018

£’000

7,156

7,156

inspiration-healthcare.com75

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

12 Investments continued

Inspiration Healthcare Group plc has the following interests in wholly owned subsidiaries, joint ventures or associates registered 
and operating in England and Wales.

Name

Inspiration Healthcare Limited
Inspiration Homecare Limited*
Inditherm Limited*
Inditherm (Medical) Limited*
Inditherm (UK) Limited*
Inditherm Construction Limited*

Direct/
indirect
ownership

% of total
issued
share
capital

Nature of business

Sale of medical goods
Dormant
Dormant
Holding company for intellectual property rights
Dormant
Dormant

Direct
Indirect
Indirect
Direct
Direct
Direct

100
100
100
100
100
100

Class of
share

Ordinary
Ordinary
Ordinary
Ordinary
Ordinary
Ordinary

The registered office of the above companies is:
2 Satellite Business Village, Fleming Way, Crawley, England, RH10 9NE

Anaesthetic Services Systems Limited*

Dormant

Indirect

100

Ordinary

The registered office of the above company is:
C10 Strangford Park Ards Business Centre, Jubilee Road, Newtownards,  
Co Down, BT23 4YH

Inspiration Healthcare Ireland Limited*

Dormant

Indirect

100

Ordinary

Incorporated: 14 January 2019
The registered office of the above company is: 
The Black Church, St. Mary’s Place, Dublin, D07 P4AX

* Entities exempt from the requirement to have a statutory audit

13 Inventories

Raw materials
Finished goods

Group

Company

2019
£’000

1
717

718

2018
£’000

9
551

560

2019
£’000

2018
£’000

–
–

–

3
–

3

Inventories are presented net of provisions of £165,000 (2018: £179,000) to write down the values to management’s estimate of 
net realisable value.

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 201976

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

14 Trade and other receivables 

Group

Company

Trade receivables
Loss allowance

Net trade receivables
UK Corporation tax receivable (see note 16)
Other taxes and social security
Other debtors
Prepayments and accrued income

2019
£’000

2,994
(20)

2,974
30
8
13
82

3,107

2018
£’000

2,821
(17)

2,804
–
26
14
222

3,066

2019
£’000

2018
£’000

–
–

–
–
8
–
29

37

–
–

–
–
26
–
26

52

Trade receivables are amounts due from customers for goods sold or services performed in the ordinary course of business and 
are generally due for settlement within 30-45 days. Other receivables are generally due for settlement within three to twelve 
months. Trade and other receivables are therefore all classified as current. Trade and other receivables are non-interest bearing 
and receivable under normal commercial terms. The Directors consider that the carrying value of trade and other receivables 
approximates their fair value. Specific provisions are made against doubtful debts arising from contracts with customers 
taking the value based on the most likely outcome. Using the simplified approach the historical default rate of 0.06% is also 
taken into account when assessing expected credit loss. Trade receivables includes specific provisions at 31 January 2019 of 
£14,000 (2018: £17,000). The adoption of IFRS 9 has had an immaterial impact on the trade receivable specific provision. 

Amounts due from Group undertakings are non-interest bearing, unsecured and repayable on demand. 

At 31 January 2019 the trade receivables which were past due but not impaired for the Group were £768,000 (2018: £802,000) 
and company £nil (2018: £nil) These receivable balances have not been impaired because the balances have been 
acknowledged as payable by the customers or have been paid since the year end. The ageing of these receivables is as follows:

Up to three months
Between four and twelve months

Group

Company

2019
£’000

598
170

768

2018
£’000

626
176

802

2019
£’000

2018
£’000

–
–

–

–
–

–

The carrying value of receivables that would have been past due or impaired, but whose terms have been renegotiated is £nil 
(2018: £nil). 

Receivables that are neither past due or impaired are within credit limits for the respective customer and having made 
reasonable enquiries the Directors are not aware of any reasons that indicate the amounts due are disputed or not collectable. 

The maximum exposure to credit risk at the reporting date is the fair value of each class of receivable shown above. The Group 
does not insure receivables or hold any collateral as security. 

The carrying amounts of the Group’s receivables are denominated in the following currencies: 

Pounds sterling
Euro
US Dollars

Group

Company

2019
£’000

1,978
700
429

3,107

2018
£’000

2,474
434
158

3,066

2019
£’000

2018
£’000

37
–
–

37

52
–
–

52

inspiration-healthcare.com77

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

15 Cash and cash equivalents 

Cash and cash equivalents comprise solely of cash at bank and cash in hand held by the Group.

The carrying amounts of the Group’s cash and cash equivalents are denominated in the following currencies:

Pounds sterling
Euro
US Dollars
JPY

Balances per statement of cash flows

Group

Company

2019
£’000

1,946
328
259
6

2,539

2018
£’000

1,567
280
236
3

2,086

2019
£’000

664
6
5
–

675

2018
£’000

659
5
4
–

668

The Group currently use two banks; Royal Bank of Scotland plc and HSBC Bank plc. Moody’s give long term ratings of A2 for both 
Royal Bank of Scotland plc and HSBC Bank plc as at 31 January 2019.

Group

Company

2019
£’000

1,864
675
–

2,539

2018
£’000

1,417
668
1

2,086

2019
£’000

–
675
–

675

2018
£’000

–
668
–

668

Royal Bank of Scotland plc
HSBC Bank plc
Cash

Balances per statement of cash flows

16 Current tax 

The following are the major current tax assets and liabilities recognised by the Group and movements thereon during the 
current and prior reporting year. 

UK corporation tax receivable/(payable) (see notes 14/17)

2019
£’000

30

2018
£’000

(70)

At the year end date the Group has not recognised a separate receivable in respect of potential research and development tax 
claims (2018: £nil). 

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 201978

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

17 Trade and other payables

Group

Company

Trade payables
UK corporation tax payable (see note 16)
Other taxes and social security
Amounts payable to subsidiary undertakings
Other payables
Accrued expenses
Provision for other liabilities and charges (note 18)

2019
£’000

1,304
–
366
–
12
513
15

2,210

2018
£’000

1,599
70
287
–
50
728
22

2,756

2019
£’000

2018
£’000

37
–
–
23
–
58
9

127

8
–
–
808
–
127
16

959

The fair value of trade and other payables approximates to book value at 31 January 2019. Trade payables are non-interest 
bearing and the average credit period taken for trade purchases is 46 days (2018: 45 days). Accruals are normally settled 
monthly throughout the financial year.

Amounts due to Group undertakings are non-interest bearing, unsecured and repayable on demand. 

18 Provision for other liabilities and charges

The provision for closure of facilities relates to the exceptional cost taken during 2017 and includes redundancy, dilapidations, 
project management, obsolete inventory and dual running lease and similar costs. The provision has arisen due to expected 
timing of cash outflows along with associated uncertainty regarding their final values, but is expected to be fully utilised in the 
coming financial year.

Group

At 31 January 2018
– Utilised during the year

At 31 January 2019

Group
Closure of
facilities
£’000

Company
Closure of
facilities
£’000

22
(7)

15

16
(7)

9

inspiration-healthcare.com79

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

19  Financial risk management and financial instruments

The Group’s principal financial instruments comprise trade and other receivables, cash and cash equivalents and trade and 
other payables. The main purpose of these financial instruments is to finance the Group’s operations. 

The policies to address the risks associated with the Group’s financial instruments are reviewed and approved by the Board. 
The main risks arising from the Group’s financial instruments are liquidity risk and credit risk. A summary of the risks is set out 
below and also referred to in the Principle Risks and Uncertainties report on pages 28 to 30. 

The Group holds the following financial instruments:

Financial assets
Financial assets at amortised cost

Trade receivables
Other receivables
Financial assets at fair value through profit or loss (FVPL)
Cash and cash equivalents

Financial liabilities
Liabilities at amortised cost

Trade and other payables
Derivative financial instruments
– Used for hedging

Note

14
14
12
15

2019
£’000

2018
£’000

2,974
13
111
2,539

2,804
14
111
2,086

17

19(a)

1,844

2,399

9

3

As at 31 January 2019 all the above are due or mature in under three months with the exception of derivatives which are due or 
mature in under twelve months.

The Group has not disclosed the fair values for financial instruments such as short-term trade receivables and payables, because 
their carrying amounts are a reasonable approximation of fair values.

19(a) Derivatives
Derivatives are only used for economic hedging purposes and not as speculative investments. The Group’s accounting policy for 
its cash flow hedges is set out in note 1. 

The Group has the following financial instruments.

›  Forward foreign exchange contracts

Forward foreign exchange contacts are fair value adjusted through other comprehensive income within reserves (note 22 (d)) 
using the rate which would have been achieved should the contracts have been instructed at the year end. All contracts held will 
be settled within 12 months after the reporting period.

Hedge effectiveness is determined at the inception of the hedge relationship to ensure that an economic relationship exists 
between the hedged item and hedging instrument. 

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 201980

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

19 Financial risk management and financial instruments continued

19(b) Credit risk
Credit risk principally arises on cash deposits and trade receivables.

The Group monitors defaults of customers and other counterparties and incorporates this information into credit risk controls. 
Ongoing credit evaluation is performed on the financial condition of accounts receivable taking into account independent 
ratings (where available), its financial position, past experience and other factors. 

Management considers that all the above financial assets that are not impaired for each of the reporting dates under review are 
of good credit quality, including those that are past due.

The carrying value of financial assets recorded in the financial statements, which is net of impairment losses, represents the 
Group’s maximum exposure to credit risk as no collateral or other credit enhancements are held.

The credit risk for liquid funds and other short term financial assets relates to the banking institutions holding such funds and 
assets on behalf of the Group and may therefore be higher in conditions of general banking uncertainty. The counterparties are 
considered to be reputable banks with high quality external risk ratings. Please see note 15. 

19(c) Liquidity risk
In the normal course of business the Group is exposed to liquidity risk. The Group’s objective is to ensure that sufficient 
resources are available to fund short term working capital and longer term strategic requirements. This is achieved through the 
use of an appropriate mix of short, medium and long term deposits and investments.

The Group manages its liquidity needs by monitoring cash outflows due in day-to-day business. Liquidity needs are monitored 
in various time bands, on a day-to-day and week-to-week basis. Long term liquidity needs are monitored monthly. 

The Group maintains cash and cash equivalents to meet its liquidity requirements for at least a 90 day period. 

At 31 January 2019 and 31 January 2018, the Group’s liabilities had contractual maturities which are summarised as follows:

2019

Trade payables

2018

Trade payables

Carrying
amount
£’000

Total
£’000

1 year
or less
£’000

(1,304)

(1,304)

(1,304)

(1,599)

(1,599)

(1,599)

1 to 2
years
£’000

–

–

2 to 5
years
£’000

–

–

The above contractual maturity of the Group’s financial liabilities reflects the gross cash flows, which may differ from the 
carrying values of the liabilities at the year end date.

inspiration-healthcare.com81

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

19 Financial risk management and financial instruments continued

19(d) Interest rate risk
The Group does not believe that its financial stability is threatened because of an exposure to interest rate risk and 
consequently does not hedge against it. The Board keeps this risk under regular review.

19(e) Foreign currency risk
The Group has entered into a number of forward foreign exchange contracts to mitigate an element of the Groups exposure to 
foreign currency risk. The Board keeps this risk under regular review. There is a degree of natural hedge due to the balance of 
imports and exports.

19(f) Capital risk
The Group establishes credit limits for all financial instruments taking into account independent ratings, past experience  
and other factors. The Group’s investment policy is to invest in fixed rate/low risk investments where the capital element is  
not at risk to market changes. The capital risk of cash deposits is further reduced by spreading investment across more than 
one bank.

19(g) Capital management
The Group’s objectives when managing capital are to safeguard the Group’s ability to continue as a going concern in order to 
provide returns for shareholders and benefits for other stakeholders and to maintain an optimal capital structure to reduce the 
cost of capital.

In order to maintain or adjust the capital structure, the Group may issue new shares, adjust the amount of dividends paid to 
shareholders, return capital to shareholders or sell assets to reduce debt.

20 Contract liabilities

Contract Liabilities arise from unsatisfied performance obligations on rental, managed service, service or maintenance contracts 
where revenue is recognised over time. The revenue recognition accounting policy is explained in note 1. 

The profile of when this income will be recognised in the Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income is as follows:

31 January 2019
31 January 2018

Within 1
year
£’000

319
328

1 to 2
years
£’000

–
6

2 to 3
years
£’000

–
1

3 to 4
years
£’000

–
–

4 to 5
years
£’000

–
–

Total
£’000

319
335

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 201982

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

21 Deferred tax

The following are the major deferred tax liabilities and assets recognised by the Group and movements thereon during the 
current and prior reporting year.

Note that the effective future tax rate is 17% (2018: 17%). 

Net liability at beginning of year
(Charge)/credit to the profit and loss for the year

Net (liability)/asset at end of year

The elements of deferred taxation provided for are as follows:

Accelerated capital allowances
Short term timing differences

Deferred tax (liability)/asset

Group

Company

2019
£’000

(34)
(71)

(105)

2018
£’000

(13)
(21)

(34)

2019
£’000

–
11

11

Group

Company

2019
£’000

(117)
12

(105)

2018
£’000

(34)
–

(34)

2019
£’000

–
11

11

2018
£’000

–
–

–

2018
£’000

–
–

–

At the year end date the Group had gross unused losses of £7,596,000 (2018: £7,596,000) potentially available to offset 
against future profits. Brought forward losses transferred to the Group due to the reverse acquisition amount to £7,596,000. 
The Group has received advice that these losses can be carried forward and utilised against future taxable profits of the same 
business from which they were generated. A streaming methodology has been devised to estimate profits from this business. 
This has been projected forwards and due to anticipated ongoing investment in development of the product range with 
consequent benefits of R&D tax credits it is estimated that taxable profits will not be generated for a number of years. Given a 
number of uncertainties inherent in the estimations, including revenue generated from recent product launches and the quantum 
of R&D tax credits, no deferred tax has been recognised in respect of these losses.

The amounts of deferred tax not recognised are as follows:

Unused tax losses

2019
£’000

1,291

2018
£’000

1,291

inspiration-healthcare.com83

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

22 Shareholders’ equity

22(a) Called up share capital

Share capital

At 1 February 2018

At 31 January 2019

Number of
shares
(Allotted & 
Issued)

30,667,548

30,667,548

Share
capital
£’000

3,067

3,067

Total
£’000

3,067

3,067

The holders of ordinary shares are entitled to receive dividends as declared from time to time and are entitled to one vote per 
share at meetings of the Company. Ordinary shares have the same rights.

For the purpose of preparing the consolidated financial statements of the Group, the Share Capital represents the nominal value of 
the issued share capital of 10p per share. 

22(b) Reverse acquisition reserve
The reverse acquisition reserve of £(16,164)k (2018: £(16,164)k) arose on the reverse acquisition of Inditherm plc.

22(c) Share based payment reserve
The share based payment reserve of £91k (2018: £20k), Company £246k (2018: £175K), represents the expense recognised in 
the Consolidated Income Statement in relation to the Group share option scheme. See note 25. 

22(d) Other reserves
Other reserves of £(9)k (2018: £(3)) represents other comprehensive income arising on the gains or losses on derivatives that are 
designated and qualify as cash flow hedges.

23 Note to the Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows

Profit before taxation
Adjustments for: 
Net finance (Income)/Expense
Depreciation and amortisation
Employee share scheme expense
Loss on disposal of tangible asset
Loss on disposal of intangible asset
(Increase)/Decrease in inventories
Increase in trade and other receivables
Decrease in trade and other payables
Decrease in contract liabilities

Cash generated from operations

2019
£’000

1,219

(6)
364
71
3
3
(158)
(11)
(474)
(16)

995

2018
£’000

1,202

2
230
20
10
–
218
(575)
(130)
(58)

919

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 201984

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

24 Commitments

(a)  Capital commitments

At 31 January 2019, the Company had capital expenditure commitments totalling £nil (2018: £45,000).

(b)  Operating leases

The Group has annual commitments under non-cancellable operating leases relating primarily to land and buildings,  
motor vehicles and office equipment. Land and buildings have been considered separately for lease classification.  
Land and buildings amounts relate to leasehold properties at the Earl Shilton site, Crawley and Newtownards. During  
the year £168,000 was recognised as an expense in the Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income in respect  
of operating leases (2018: £181,000). 

Future aggregate minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases at the end of the year are as follows:

Group

Land and buildings

Other

Within 1 year
In the second to fifth years inclusive
After five years

Company

Within 1 year
In the second to fifth years inclusive
After five years

2019
£’000

82
310
105

497

2018
£’000

64
239
164

467

2019
£’000

61
21
–

82

2018
£’000

71
95
–

166

Other

2019
£’000

2018
£’000

6
9
–

15

6
15
–

21

inspiration-healthcare.com85

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

25 Share based payments 

The Group operates an employee share option scheme which is available to a number of employees and is designed to provide 
long term incentives for senior managers and above to deliver long-term shareholder returns. Under the plan, participants are 
granted options which only vest if certain performance standards are met. Participation in the plan is at the Board’s discretion 
and no individual has a contractual right to participate in the plan or receive any guaranteed benefits.

The amount of options that will vest depends on the Group’s total return to shareholders (TSR) measured as a direct result of 
EPS growth over a performance period of 3 years. Once vested, the options remain exercisable for a period of two years.

When exercisable, each option is convertible into one ordinary share.

Details of the share options outstanding at 31 January 2019 and movements during the year by exercise price is shown below: 

As at 1 February
Granted during the year
Exercised during the year
Forfeited during the year

As at 31 January

2019

2018

Average 
exercise price 
per share 
option

£nil
£nil
–
£nil

£nil

Average 
exercise price 
per share 
option

–
£nil
–
–

£nil

Number of 
options

285,338
348,603
–
(50,000)

583,941

Number of 
options

–
285,338
–
–

285,338

There were no options exercisable and no options expired during the year covered.

Share options outstanding at the end of the year have the following expiry dates and exercise prices:

Grant date 

Expiry date

8 November 2017 
7 November 2018 

7 November 2027
6 November 2028

Total

Exercise  
price

Share options 
31 January 
2019

Share options 
31 January 
2018

£nil
£nil

235,338
348,603

285,338
–

583,941

285,338

Weighted average remaining contractual life of options outstanding at the end of the year

9.4 years

9.8 years

The assessed fair value at grant date of options granted during the year ended 31 January 2019 was £0.69 (2018: £0.61)  
per option which is determined by the Black-Scholes pricing model. 

The key model inputs for options granted during the year ended 31 January 2019 included:

• Grant date: 7 November 2018 (2018: 8 November 2017)

• Share price at grant date: £0.73 (2018: £0.66) 

• Exercise date: 31 January 2021 (2018: 31 January 2020) 

• Exercise price: £nil (2018: £nil)

An amount of £71,000 (£2018: £20,000) has been recognised as a charge within administrative expenses in the Consolidated 
Income Statement and a credit to retained earnings within equity.

There were no cash settled share-based payment transactions.

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 201986

Notes forming part of the Financial Statements continued 
for the year ended 31 January 2019

26 Contingent liabilities 

During the normal course of business, the Group offers warranties on its products against clearly defined performance 
specifications. 

As at the 31 January 2019 Inspiration Healthcare Limited has committed to underwrite £74k of components purchased  
by a subcontracted manufacturer. 

27 Pension schemes 

The Group made contributions in respect of defined contribution pension arrangements of Group £107,000 (2018: £91,000) 
and Company £nil (2018: £9,000). At the year end the amount of contributions payable to the schemes were Group £nil  
(2018: £nil) and Company £nil (2018: £nil). 

28 Related party transactions 

Neuroprotexeon Limited 

At the year end date the Group held 9.6% (2018: 10.0%) of the issued ordinary share capital of Neuroprotexeon Limited  
(8.6% fully diluted (2018: 8.6%)). Further information relating to the investment is disclosed in note 12. 

Neil Campbell resigned as a Non-executive Director of Neuroprotexeon Limited on 21 June 2018.

Key management 

Directors control 28% of the voting shares of the legal parent company. Directors interests in shares are disclosed in the 
Remuneration Report on page 44. 

Key management comprise the Group’s Executive and Non-executive Directors. Remuneration of Executive and Non-executive 
Directors is set out in note 5 and the Director’s Remuneration Report on page 43.

Lease of Leicestershire Facility

The Leicestershire facility at Earl Shilton is rented on an arms length basis from a self-invested pension plan controlled  
by Neil Campbell, Toby Foster, Simon Motley, Malcolm Oxley and Graham Walls. The lease was renewed on an arm’s length 
basis during April 2018.

inspiration-healthcare.com87

Other Shareholder Information

Link Asset Services

The Company’s registrars, Link Asset Services, provide a number of services that, as a shareholder, might be useful to you:

Registrar’s On-Line Service

By logging onto www.signalshares.com and following the prompts, shareholders can view and amend various details on their 
account. You will need to register to use this service for which purpose you will require your unique investor code, which can be 
found on your share certificate. 

Share Dealing Services

A simple service to buy and sell shares is provided by Link Asset Services. There is no need to pre-register and there are no 
complicated application forms to fill in and by visiting www.linksharedeal.com you can also access a wealth of stock market news 
and information free of charge. 

For further information on this service, or to buy and sell shares visit www.linksharedeal.com or call 0371 664 0445. Calls 
are charged at the standard geographic rate and will vary by provider. Calls outside the United Kingdom will be charged at the 
applicable international rate. Lines are open between 08:00 – 16:30, Monday to Friday excluding public holidays in England  
and Wales). 

This is not a recommendation to buy and sell shares and this service may not be suitable for all shareholders. The price of 
shares can go down as well as up and you are not guaranteed to get back the amount you originally invested. Terms, conditions 
and risks apply. Link Asset Services is a trading name of Link Market Services Trustees Limited which is authorised and regulated 
by the Financial Conduct Authority. This service is only available to private shareholders resident in the European Economic Area, 
the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man. 

Link Asset Services is a trading name of Link Market Services Limited and Link Market Services Trustees Limited. Share registration 
and associated services are provided by Link Market Services Limited (registered in England and Wales, No. 2605568). Regulated 
services are provided by Link Market Services Trustees Limited (registered in England and Wales No. 2729260), which is 
authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. 

The registered office of each of these companies is The Registry, 34 Beckenham Road, Beckenham, Kent BR3 4TU. 

www.linkassetservices.com

Duplicate Share Register Accounts

If you are receiving more than one copy of our report, it could be your shares are registered in two or more accounts on our register 
of members. If that was not your intention, please contact Link Asset Services who will be pleased to merge your accounts.

General shareholder enquiries should contact: 

Link Asset Services, The Registry, 34 Beckenham Road, Beckenham, Kent  BR3 4TU 

Tel: 0871 664 0300. 

Calls cost 12p per minute plus your phone company’s access charge. If you are outside the United Kingdom,  
please call +44 371 664 0300. Calls outside the United Kingdom will be charged at the applicable international rate.  
The helpline is open between 09:00 – 17:30, Monday to Friday excluding public holidays in England and Wales. 

Email: enquiries@linkgroup.co.uk

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 201988

Advisers

Company Secretary  
and Registered Office 

Mike Briant, Unit 2, Satellite Business Park, 
 Crawley, West Sussex RH10 9NE

Company number 

03587944

Independent Auditors 

 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Chartered Accountants and 
Statutory Auditors, Donington Court, Pegasus Business Park, 
Herald Way, East Midlands, DE74 2UZ 

Bankers 

 HSBC Bank plc, 1st Floor, First Point, Buckingham Gate, 
London Gatwick Airport, West Sussex, RH6 0NT

 Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc, 896 Woodborough Road, 
Mapperley, Nottingham NG3 5QR

Nominated adviser  
and broker 

Cenkos Securities plc, 6,7,8 Tokenhouse Yard, London 
 EC2R 7AS

Legal advisers 

Registrars 

 Gordons LLP, Riverside West, Whitehall Road, Leeds  
LS1 4AW

 Link Asset Services, 34 Beckenham Road, Beckenham, Kent, 
BR3 4TU

inspiration-healthcare.com 
89

THIS DOCUMENT IS IMPORTANT AND REQUIRES YOUR IMMEDIATE ATTENTION. If you are in any 
doubt about the contents of this document or as to what action you should take, you are recommended 
to seek your own personal financial advice from your stockbroker, bank manager, solicitor, accountant 
or other independent financial adviser authorised under the Financial Services and Markets Act 
2000, as amended, if you are resident in the United Kingdom, or if you are taking advice in another 
jurisdiction, from an appropriately authorised independent professional adviser.

If you have sold or otherwise transferred all of your Ordinary Shares in Inspiration Healthcare Group plc  
you should deliver this document together with the enclosed Form of Proxy as soon as possible to the 
purchaser or transferee or to the stockbroker, bank or other agent through whom the sale or transfer 
was effected for onward transmission to the purchaser or transferee. However, this document and any 
accompanying documents should not be sent or transmitted in, or into, any jurisdiction where to do so 
might constitute a violation of local securities law or regulations. If you have sold or otherwise transferred 
only part of your holding of your Ordinary Shares, please consult the stockbroker, bank or other agent 
through whom the sale or transfer was effected. 

Inspiration Healthcare Group plc 

(Incorporated and registered in England and Wales with registered number 03587944)

Notice of Annual General Meeting

This document should be read as a whole.

Notice of the Annual General Meeting of the Company to be held at the Company’s offices, Unit 2 
Satellite Business Village, Crawley, West Sussex RH10 9NE at 11:30am on 27 June 2019 is set out in 
this document. A Form of Proxy for use at the meeting is enclosed with this document. To be valid, the 
Form of Proxy must be completed and returned as soon as possible and in any event so as to be received 
by the Company’s registrars Link Asset Services, PXS, 34 Beckenham Road, Beckenham, Kent BR3 
4TU by not later than 11:30am on 25 June 2019. Completion and posting of the Form of Proxy will not 
prevent a shareholder from attending and voting in person at the Annual General Meeting.

Notes:

(1) References to times in this document are to London times unless otherwise stated.

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 201990

Notice of Annual General Meeting continued 

Notice is given that the annual general meeting of Inspiration Healthcare Group plc (“the Company”)  
will be held at the Company’s offices, Unit 2 Satellite Business Village, Crawley, West Sussex 
RH10 9NE at 11:30 am on 27 June 2019 for the following purposes: 

There will be a presentation by the Executive Directors on the business at the start of the AGM.

Ordinary Business
To consider and, if thought fit, pass the following resolutions, which will be proposed as ordinary resolutions: 

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

 To receive and adopt the financial statements of the Company for the financial year ended 31 January 2019
together with the Directors’ and auditors’ reports on those financial statements.

To approve the Remuneration Report for the year ended 31 January 2019.

To re-elect Mark Simon Abrahams as a Director of the Company.

To re-elect Neil James Campbell as a Director of the Company.

To re-elect Bob Beveridge as a Director of the Company.

To re-elect Brook Nolson as a Director of the Company.

To re-elect Toby Foster as a Director of the Company.

To re-elect Michael John Briant as a Director of the Company.

 To reappoint PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as auditors of the Company to hold office from the conclusion of
the meeting to the conclusion of the next meeting at which the accounts are laid before the Company at a
remuneration to be determined by the Directors.

Special Business
To consider and, if thought fit, pass the following resolutions, of which resolutions 10 and 11 will be proposed as 
ordinary resolutions and resolutions 11 and 12 will be proposed as special resolutions: 

10.

11.

 That the Company may send or supply documents or information to members by making them available
on a website.

 That the Directors be generally and unconditionally authorised in accordance with Section 551 of the
Companies Act 2006 (the “Act”), in substitution for all existing authorities to the extent unused, to exercise
all powers of the Company to allot shares in the Company and to grant rights to subscribe for, or to convert
any security into, shares in the Company up to an aggregate nominal amount of £1,022,251, provided that
this authority shall, unless renewed, varied or revoked by the Company, expire at the conclusion of the next
annual general meeting or, if earlier, 27 June 2020, save that the Company may, before such expiry, make
an offer or agreement which would or might require shares to be allotted or rights to be granted after such
expiry and the Directors may allot shares or grant rights in pursuance of such offer or agreement as if the
authority conferred by this resolution had not expired.

inspiration-healthcare.com91

12.   That, subject to the passing of Resolution 11 above, the Board of Directors of the Company be empowered 
pursuant to section 570 of the Act to allot equity securities (as defined in section 560 of the Act) for cash 
pursuant to the general authority conferred by Resolution 11 as set out in this Notice of Annual General 
Meeting as if section 561(1) of the Act did not apply to such allotment, provided that this power shall be 
limited to the allotment of equity securities up to an aggregate nominal amount of £153,337. Such power 
shall expire on the conclusion of the next annual general meeting of the Company after the passing of this 
Resolution save that the Company may before such expiry make an offer or agreement which would or 
might require equity securities to be allotted after such expiry, and the Board may allot equity securities in 
pursuance of such an offer or agreement as if the power conferred by this resolution had not expired. 

13.   That the Company be generally and unconditionally authorised pursuant to Article 8(A) of the Articles of 

Association of the Company and section 701 of the Act to make market purchases (within the meaning of 
section 693(4) of the Act) of ordinary shares provided that: 

a. 

 the maximum aggregate number of ordinary shares hereby authorised to be purchased is 4,600,130, 
representing 15% of the Company’s issued ordinary share capital at the date of this notice; 

b. 

the minimum price, exclusive of any expenses, which may be paid for an ordinary share is £0.10; 

c. 

d. 

 the maximum price, exclusive of any expenses, which may be paid for any such share is an amount 
equal to 105% of the average of the middle market quotations for an ordinary share taken from the 
London Stock Exchange AIM All-Share List for the five business days immediately preceding the date on 
which such share is contracted to be purchased; 

 the authority hereby conferred shall expire on the earlier of 27 June 2020 or the close of the next annual 
general meeting of the Company and the Company may make a contract for the purchase of ordinary 
shares under this authority before the expiry of this authority which would or might be executed wholly 
or partly after the expiry of such authority and may make purchases of ordinary shares in pursuance of 
such a contract as if such authority had not expired. 

BY ORDER OF THE BOARD

Company Secretary:  Mike Briant

Date: 

23 May 2019

Registered office: 

Unit 2 Satellite Business Village 
Crawley West Sussex RH10 9NE

Strategic Report           Governance           Financial Statements           Shareholder InformationINSPIRATION HEALTHCARE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 2019 
 
 
 
 
92

Notes to the Annual General Meeting

1.  

2. 

  A form of proxy is enclosed for use by shareholders and, if appropriate, must be deposited with the 
Company’s registrars at Link Asset Services, 34 Beckenham Road, Beckenham, Kent BR3 4TU by  
11:30 am on 25 June 2019. Appointment of a proxy does not preclude a shareholder from attending  
the Annual General Meeting (AGM) and voting in person.

 A member entitled to attend and vote at the AGM may appoint one or more proxies (who need not be 
a member of the Company) to attend and to speak and to vote on his or her behalf whether by show of 
hands or on a poll. A member can appoint more than one proxy in relation to the meeting, provided that 
each proxy is appointed to exercise the rights attaching to different shares held by him. In order to be valid 
an appointment of proxy (together with any authority under which it is executed or a copy of the authority 
certified notarially) must be returned by one of the following methods:

– 

– 

 in hard copy form by post, by (during normal business hours only) courier or by hand to the Company’s 
registrars, Link Asset Services, PXS, 34 Beckenham Road, Beckenham, Kent BR3 4TU;

 in the case of CREST members, by utilising the CREST electronic proxy appointment service in 
accordance with the procedures set out below

 and in each case must be received by the Company not less than 48 hours before the time of the meeting.

3. 

 CREST members who wish to appoint a proxy or proxies through the CREST electronic proxy appointment 
service may do so for the AGM and any adjournment thereof by using the procedures described in the CREST 
Manual. CREST personal members or other CREST sponsored members, and those CREST members who 
have appointed a voting service provider(s) should refer to their CREST sponsor or voting service provider(s), 
who will be able to take that appropriate action on their behalf.

 In order for a proxy appointment, or instruction, made by means of CREST to be valid, the appropriate 
CREST message (a CREST Proxy Instruction) must be properly authenticated in accordance with Euroclear 
UK & Ireland Limited’s (EUI) specifications and must contain the information required for such instructions, 
as described in the CREST Manual. The message regardless of whether it relates to the appointment of a 
proxy or to an amendment to the instruction given to a previously appointed proxy must, in order to be valid, 
be transmitted so as to be received by the issuer’s agent (ID RA10) by the latest time(s) for receipt of proxy 
appointments specified in the Notice of Meeting. For this purpose, the time of receipt will be taken to be the 
time (as determined by the timestamp applied to the message by the CREST Applications Host) from which 
the issuer’s agent is able to retrieve the message by enquiry to CREST in the manner prescribed by CREST.

 CREST members and where applicable, their CREST sponsors or voting service providers should note that 
EUI does not make available special procedures in CREST for any particular messages. Normal system 
timings and limitations will therefore apply in relation to the input of CREST Proxy instructions. It is therefore 
the responsibility of the CREST member concerned to take (or, if the CREST member is a CREST personal 
member or sponsored member or has appointed voting service provider(s)), to procure that his or her CREST 
sponsor or voting service provider(s) take(s)) such action as shall be necessary to ensure that a message 
is transmitted by means of the CREST system by any particular time. In this connection, CREST members 
and, where applicable, their CREST Sponsors or voting service providers are referred, in particular, to those 
sections of the CREST Manual concerning practical limitations of the CREST system and timings.

 The Company may treat as invalid a CREST Proxy Instruction in the circumstances set out in Regulation 
35(5) of the Uncertified Securities Regulations 2001.

 To be entitled to attend and vote at the AGM (and for the purpose of the determination by the Company of 
the votes they may cast) Shareholders must be registered in the Register of Members of the Company at 
close of business on 25 June 2019 or, in the event of any adjournment, at close of business on the date 
which is two days (not including non-working days) before the time of the adjourned meeting. Changes to the 
Register of Members after the relevant deadline shall be disregarded in determining the rights of any person 
to attend and vote at the meeting.

4. 

5. 

inspiration-healthcare.com 
 
 
 
 
Headquarters and Registered Office:

Inspiration Healthcare Group plc
2 Satellite Business Village, Crawley, 
West Sussex RH10 9NE, UK

inspiration-healthcare.com