Introduction

Ladies and gentlemen, I extend a warm welcome to this 7th Annual General Meeting of your company, Iatia Limited. It is a pleasure to see several faces from our previous AGMs with us again. Thank you for your continued support.

Let me introduce my Board colleagues. Most are already well known to you, Deputy Chairman Vincent Thiang, Professor Keith Nugent and Felix Thiang. The new face is John Coulson. John joined the Board as a Non-Executive Director in June, shortly after the tragic death of Brian Powell, who had been a Non-Executive Director from the outset of the Company, and CEO for more than two years in the middle of this decade; and who contributed substantially to Iatia’s progress throughout the period of his involvement.

We have been fortunate that John accepted our invitation to join the Board. He brings strong knowledge of Iatia’s strategy and export development initiatives, having helped the company for several years in a facilitating role.

Our operational team will be well known to most of you. It is headed by our CEO, Charles Laycock; ably assisted by Dr Brendan Allman, our Chief Operating Officer and Chief Scientific Officer; Gavin Gregson, our Chief Technical Officer; and Felix, of course, who is also Company Secretary and CFO.

Progress

The theme of our Annual Report this year was ‘Iatia in the World’. The year to 30 June 2008, and since, has seen substantially increased interest in our technology from many companies around the world, particularly in the United States of America and in Europe. This has been a result of a major marketing effort by our team, which we detailed in the Annual Report.

Successful completion of the Capability Technology Demonstrator contract with the Department of Defence has been a most important achievement by the Company. It has been a major source of income for us. It has given us considerable standing with international defence contractors. It positions us well as we seek ways to fund further development of potential military applications for our technology. In this respect I am pleased to say that we have received encouragement from senior levels of the Federal Government to apply next year for new CTD or similar funding.

During 2007-08 GE Healthcare reduced its orders due to timing issues with its own products. We have experienced some pick up in orders since the end of June. We are in the final stages of negotiating a comprehensive agreement that will see GE Healthcare have the ability to use Iatia’s QPI technology in many diverse areas of its healthcare business.

The planned launch in the latter part of 2008 of a new ophthalmology auto-refractor by our European manufacturing partner incorporating our technology has unfortunately been delayed. The launch is now expected in the first half of 2009, with revenues commencing in 2009-10. We have put considerable effort into this product and see it as a very significant utilisation of our technology.

The published net loss of $498,672 after tax was half that of the previous year, principally as a result of a reduction in the level of impairment of assets. Whilst we continue to keep a tight rein on expenditure, the essential pursuit of international markets and agreements has resulted in an increase in administration and marketing costs. We have been assisted in keeping the increase in marketing costs to a modest level following our appointment of Dr David Hutton at the beginning of the financial year as a marketing consultant. Dr Hutton has been based on the West Coast of the USA for the last 20 years and maintains regular contact with his extensive network in sectors of prime importance to Iatia. His role also enables our Australian based executives to derive maximum effective value from their marketing and negotiating visits to the US.

Research we commissioned this year, and our own marketing activities, have enabled us to identify a number of potential new opportunities for Iatia’s technology in the life sciences market. Entering this market, however, is not easy, and requires patience, but it is essential for our company’s long term wellbeing. Funding considerations, about which I will speak shortly, pose a major challenge in this regard.

CEO Charles Laycock will go into more detail in his presentation about what we have achieved. Importantly, within our funding constraints we are continuing to look at new product markets, for example material sciences.

Outlook for 2009

Our company has made further progress in the past year, particularly in the US which clearly constitutes our greatest potential market, in advancing profitable opportunities for licensing agreements of our technology with significant original equipment manufacturers.

In the US we are currently in discussions and/or negotiations with GE Healthcare, and with four other companies in the life sciences market, with the intention of concluding profitable agreements over the next few months.

As you are aware, and as I mentioned earlier, we already have a firm agreement with a major European manufacturer of ophthalmic products, with a planned launch of its latest product incorporating our technology in first half 2009.

I also mentioned earlier that as a result of the successful conclusion of our CTD contract with the Australian Department of Defence we have been encouraged to apply for further contracts with the Department.

So the outlook for 2009 and beyond is promising in these respects. Our problem however is that none of these prospects will generate income until the latter half of calendar 2009 and beyond.

Our situation is that we need additional funding to enable Iatia to continue operating until this time is reached. We are taking urgent steps to conserve cash wherever possible, including both staff and Directors having agreed to defer a significant proportion of their salaries or fees until income from sales is flowing satisfactorily. But these cash saving measures will not be sufficient. We must raise additional capital in the next few months to carry us through until sales income commences to flow in the second half of 2009.

As we all know, raising capital in current market conditions is an extremely difficult task for all listed companies, but for small companies in particular. The market turmoil has slashed our and other companies’ share prices, reducing our room to manoeuvre in terms of creating value for capital raising and possible spin-offs.

As a contribution towards meeting the company’s funding requirements, your Directors have together committed to purchase a minimum of $100,000 of new shares. As well, we are currently undertaking discussions with several potential sources of funds. If these are successful we will then offer all existing shareholders the opportunity to invest on the same terms and conditions through a voluntary Share Purchase Plan.

Whilst the immediate aim is to raise additional capital, our basic medium and long term objective remains of course to become consistently cash flow positive and profitable.

Since the day of its listing in April 2002 Iatia has proven itself to be a resolute survivor. In preparing for today’s meeting, I reviewed our situation over those years, and was struck by the number of tough times we have encountered, and by the fact that on each occasion we have fought our way out of our difficulties.

At this stage in our company’s history, when at last it appears that the market has caught up with our technology, thereby providing considerable promise for the future, your Board and our talented staff are determined to ensure that that promise is realised and that as a result our shareholders are rewarded with profits, dividends and capital growth.

In saying this I am encouraged by the advice the Board has received that the life sciences market, on which Iatia’s success importantly will be based, is expected to be less impacted by any economic downturn in the US or elsewhere, either short or long term, than most other market sectors.

Conclusion

In closing, I would again like to thank you for attending today. I thank my Board colleagues, and especially my Deputy Chairman and founder of Iatia, Vincent Thiang, for their ongoing contribution, and for their support. I particularly thank our CEO Charles Laycock for his leadership in these difficult times; and Charles, Brendan, Gavin and Felix for the critical roles they continue to play in the company’s technological development and its pursuit of profitable and sustainable commercial applications. I would now like to pass over to Charles for a more detailed presentation on what we have been doing, and the prospects we see lying ahead for Iatia.