But the group's market capitalisation of £51.6m doesn't, at present, reflect that. It is nonetheless impressive considering just two years ago when OptiBiotix joined Aim its market capitalisation was £6m. The group's share price ticked up gradually throughout 2015 amid the many scientific and commercial updates and rose to its all-time high in November 2015 after the group signed an agreement with Italian health foods company CSL to create novel, low-calorie sugars using Opti's OptiBiotic technology platform.
The deals have kept rolling in since then and recently the group got its first weight management products onto the shelves. But the share price has tapered. Of course, this could be partially explained by the sector-wide stagnation which has seen many biotech companies struggle, but it could also be that Mr O'Hara's ambition is becoming a bit much for investors to stomach. Management has recently announced that it intends to divide the business into four parts - Cholesterol products, SweetBiotix, Weight Management and SkinBiotix - and eventually create four separate companies by floating each division on the stock market.
The first to go is likely to be SkinBiotix, into which the group has recently invested £400,000 using a convertible loan agreement which will convert should SkinBiotix IPO. The money will be used to complete the human studies for the division's first product. Opti's share price dipped on this announcement and continued to fall after the group appointed a chairman to the division, hinting that an IPO could be pretty soon. Broker Hybridan suggests SkinBiotix alone could be worth £98.1m, but has a risk rating on the division of 95 per cent - not hugely comforting.
