Potentially one of AIM’s larger new issues this year, the deal looks set to spark interest in the nanotechnology sector, concerned with structures at a microscopic level.

Oxonica, in which a number of VCTs have invested including top-performing Foresight Technology, recently signed a deal with Boots the Chemist. The company will supply the leading healthcare retailer with a sunscreen additive Optisol, developed by Oxonica, for use in its Soltan brand of cosmetic creams and facial products.

Boots is the second FTSE 100 customer that Oxonica has signed up. In December, train and coach travel combine Stagecoach agreed to use Oxonica’s diesel fuel additive Envirox across its 7,000-strong UK bus fleet. This cuts fuel consumption and emissions by over five per cent.

Last year the loss-making company saw sales jump from £210,000 to £1 million. This year revenues could rise to £3.2 million. Panmure Gordon has been appointed broker to the Oxonica flotation.

The company’s principal backer Foresight Technology has also invested £2 million in another nanotech venture called Nanotecture alongside AIM-quoted university research commercialiser IP2IPO.

This values the concern, spun out of Southampton University, at £10 million. Foresight managing partner Bernard Fairman anticipates that the venture, whose technology can be applied in filtration processes, might float in the fourth quarter of this year.

For further information visit: oxonica.com/