University spin-out closes deal

ARRIA NLG, the AIM-listed spin-out from Aberdeen University, has signed an agreement with a major insurer.

The announcement was a welcome tonic for the unloved shares, which rose 27 per cent to 25.5p, having sunk to a low of 20p on Wednesday.

Arria, a leader in the development and deployment of Natural Language Generation (NLG) technologies, announced a framework agreement with a major insurer, saying only that it was “one of the largest general insurers in Canada and a wholly-owned subsidiary of a global multinational insurance company.”

It said the agreement provided for a pilot application to use Arria’s NLG technology to create monthly management reporting on critical aspects of one of the insurance company’s strategic business lines, and formed the basis for deeper collaboration. “The parties contemplate further development, deployment and licensing additions to the framework agreement upon successful completion of the pilot application, resulting in additional revenue streams for Arria NLG.”

Stuart Rogers, chairman and chief executive said it was a great opportunity for Arria to expand its technologies further into the financial services industry. “Working with this insurance company, we will develop new forms of management reporting and help them gain greater insights by leveraging mission critical operational data from their internal applications.”

Mr Rogers went on: “Arria’s technology helps large corporations better understand what their data is trying to tell them, in a timely fashion, and in natural language reporting that is tailored to the various audiences within the company. This is Arria’s second financial services client and its fifth new client in the past six months.”

The company listed on the Alternative Investment Market with a flourish 13 months ago, the shares opening at 160p and soaring the following day to 282p.

That suggested paper fortunes worth almost £15 million apiece for Professor Ehud Reiter, now Arria’s chief scientist, Dr Somayajulu Sripada and Ian Davy, who were among the founders of Aberdeen University spin-out Data2Text, which was later acquired by Arria.

However the shares opened 2014 at 139p and closed the year at 34p, while yesterday’s rally puts a value of £47m on the company.

Friday, 16th January, 2015