Chairman’s Statement

I am delighted to present BATM’s Annual Report 2021. It refl ects another very successful year of progress, which saw substantial growth from ongoing operations across all our business units. Exciting new contracts added to our global base of tier 1 clients and we continued to execute on our value creation strategies with the sale of our non-core NGSoft subsidiary, generating a capital gain of $13.0m.
BATM has established solid foundations in core technologies – backed by strong intellectual property and patents – that are now at an infl exion point of becoming market disrupters.
Our high-tech and user-friendly solutions to real-world challenges in the bio-medical and networking spheres, our innovative technology and robust partnerships make us, I believe, stronger than ever today. In addition, our products and ethos continue to make a positive diff erence to the world at large – as clearly demonstrated in the recent pandemic and by solutions like our eco-friendly agricultural and medical waste disposal systems.

PROGRESS ACROSS THE BUSINESS
Both divisions, Bio-medical and Networking & Cyber, grew significantly in 2021 from ongoing operations. In the Bio-medical division, the COVID-19 pandemic created strong demand for diagnostic instruments and test kits resulting in significant growth in sales. However, importantly, we also had increased sales of our diagnostic products for other disease areas. We are specialists not just in the diagnosis of COVID-19 but in the molecular biology of infectious diseases. Pathogens such as tuberculosis (TB) pose critical health challenges with devastating social and economic consequences, especially in poorer countries. In 2021, we began developing a PCR and iso-thermal method for rapidly and comprehensively diagnosing TB, backed by the international Stop TB Partnership. We believe that through this innovative solution, we will be able to contribute to the eradication of this disease, which is a leading cause of death but is both preventable and curable. We are particularly proud of the progress in our Diagnostics unit – where our investment in recent years has come to fruition. In the Networking & Cyber division, substantial contracts were won by our cyber business. Another highlight was the launch of our Edgility platform, which we believe will be a key driver of future growth. Revenue from the unit’s ongoing operations rose, reflecting underlying growth in both units. We launched Edgility in July 2021, which is our brand of products and services for edge computing based on our network function virtualisation (NFV) technology. Two multi-year contracts worth $2.7m followed, along with several successful proof-of-concepts, which are expected to translate into further orders in 2022. Alongside this, we advanced our strategy to grow our market reach through collaborations, which has continued into the new year.

Other progress included a new tier 1 customer in the Asia Pacific region for our Network Edge carrier ethernet business, which contributed significantly to the unit’s growth. In our Cyber unit, we received new cyber security multi-year contracts worth over $18m from a long-standing government defence customer. This included an advanced network security solution containing elements of NFV protection.

STRATEGY
Our strategy is to deliver growth by focusing on developing high-technology solutions that solve complex challenges in mission-critical largescale applications. In doing so, we seek to differentiate through our intellectual property, including our proprietary algorithms, and the world-leading expertise of our employees.

In particular, we are focused on being one step ahead at the leading edge of innovation – primarily in the fields of networking, molecular diagnostics and cyber. All of our solutions – which we take from idea, to scale up, to mass-market success – and our business practices are designed with sustainability and longevity in mind: addressing the challenges of today and what we believe will be the demands of the future.

We amplify our resources through establishing strategic partnerships and are focused on creating shareholder value through business success as well as value realisation opportunities, such as the sale of non-core assets to reinvest in activities that will drive our growth.

OUTLOOK
Looking ahead, we will continue to cultivate growth and development as well as pursuing opportunities to accelerate realisation of the value of the IP within our units through strategic transactions. We believe the threat of infectious disease will only become greater and so demand for molecular biology and diagnostic technology will continue. The burgeoning growth in Internet of Things applications and new ways of working all require the edge computing solutions that we provide with Edgility. In addition, recent geopolitical events have highlighted the growing need for governments and businesses to fortify their cybersecurity systems as we enter a new era of cyber warfare.

A disappointing development was the decision of FTSE Russell to remove our stock from the FTSE UK Index Series, after more than twenty years of inclusion. This was a result of the volume of trading in our stock on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, where we have our secondary listing, surpassing the threshold set by FTSE Russell. While we are disappointed by the decision, this will not affect our business performance, the manner in which our stock is traded or our ability to deliver value for our shareholders.

I would like to thank BATM’s Executive team and employees for their hard work, commitment and talent, especially Dr. Zvi Marom, our CEO, and Moti Nagar, our CFO, who have been instrumental in the business transformation achieved in 2021. I would also like to thank you, our valuable shareholders, for your continued support.

Dr. Gideon Chitayat
Chairman
30 April 2022