Acquisition of Majority Shareholding
Embargoed Release: 07:00hrs Thursday 15th January 2009
Toumaz Holdings Limited
(`Toumaz Holdings', the `Company' or the `Group')
Acquisition of Majority Shareholding of
Sentinel Healthcare Solutions Limited
Toumaz Holdings, the specialist niche investor in emerging technologies with
strong commercial propositions for the healthcare and electronic sectors,
announces that it has increased its total interest in Sentinel Healthcare
Solutions Ltd (`Sentinel') to 81.25%. The Group acquired the additional 31.25%
shareholding of Sentinel from Continum Group Ltd.
Sentinel, a developer of innovative intelligent healthcare solutions,
successfully launched its MyAmego(tm) product in 2008. MyAmego(tm) is an assistive
telecare system that monitors people with dementia and other disabilities with
an electronic device such as a bracelet or necklace. MyAmego(tm) captures data via
small wireless monitors placed around the care home in a mesh network.
Sentinel's solution constitutes a move away from `institutional and custodial
technology' to `personalised systems' representing a key development in the use
of technology in social care where the emphasis is on the person rather than
their behaviour.
Toumaz Holdings intends to leverage its strengths and contacts to promote
Sentinel by implementing a new management structure and using its expertise to
further build MyAmego(tm)'s commercial traction. This will enable Sentinel to
continue to develop the award-winning product and progress MyAmego(tm)'s brand
building exercise.
Following the very positive market feedback it received in 2008, Sentinel,
together with its growing UK distributor network, intends to further realise
the commercial prospects of MyAmego(tm) in the UK care home market, particularly
in relation to dementia carers. It also expects to deepen and further develop
its existing relationships with a number of the largest private care home
operators in the UK, which may lead to prospective installations of the MyAmego
(tm) system in their care units.
The crucial benefit of MyAmego(tm) is that it enables the development of
person-centred care in conjunction with the requirements exacted by the Mental
Capacity Act (2005) and allows key decision makers in care home operations to
seamlessly improve their dementia care services immediately. Providers of care
services are increasingly expected to obtain evidence demonstrating their care
services are personalised and person-centred.
Guy Spelman CEO of Toumaz Holdings, commented:
'I am delighted that we have acquired a majority shareholding in Sentinel on
very favourable terms. MyAmego(tm) demonstrated positive progress in 2008 in
entering the dementia care market by rapidly gaining widespread recognition of
its unique qualities. We believe that our increased interest in Sentinel will
enable us to speed up the commercial prospects of MyAmego(tm) in the UK care home
market, particularly in relation to dementia carers, while at the same time
keeping operational costs low.'
About Sentinel Healthcare Solutions
Sentinel is a developer of innovative intelligent healthcare solutions. MyAmego
(tm), its technology solution for dementia care, is currently targeting both the
public and private UK care homes sectors, where the market size for registered
dementia sufferers in the UK alone exceeds 750,000, with similar ratios to
population in all developed countries.
MyAmego(tm) was launched at the Naidex Exhibition at the Birmingham NEC in May
2008, where it secured the 2008 Best New Technology prize on the last day of
the exhibition. The product also received widespread recognition at the 3rd UK
Dementia Congress held in Bournemouth, October 2008, where MyAmego(tm) held a
well-attended breakfast workshop that included a presentation by Jackie Poole,
one of the UK's leading occupational therapists and expert on Dementia and care
for older people.
Sentinel has in place distributorship agreements for MyAmego(tm) for the local
authority and private care home sectors. The MyAmego(tm) system was successfully
installed into a local authority mixed disability (including dementia)
25-bedroom care home in 2008. Sentinel and Healthantec Ltd. (`Healthantec'), a
specialist in the marketing and distribution of healthcare devices in the UK
private care home market also installed the system into owner-managed private
care homes.
For further information please contact:
Guy Spelman
Toumaz Holdings Limited
Tel: +44 7767 338 967
Charles Cunningham/
Rose Herbert/
Sam Smith
FinnCap
Tel: 020 7600 1658
Vikki Krause
Hansard Group
Tel: +44 207 245 1100
END