Introduction

Ladies and gentlemen, I extend a warm welcome to this 8th 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. They are already well known to you -Deputy Chairman Vincent Thiang; Professor Keith Nugent; Felix Thiang and John Coulson.

Our operational team will also 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 last financial year had challenges for all of us. As you would be well aware, small companies were often under significant pressure as the various side effects of the global financial crisis worked through the economy. Iatia, like many companies with limited cash flow, needed to secure funding. The issue was very important for the company. At the last AGM I spoke at length about the need for funding, and standing here today, I am pleased to report that we received strong support from a number of different parties.

First and foremost, we had support from our Deputy Chairman, Vincent Thiang; our CEO, Charles Laycock; and an institutional shareholder, who together invested a total of $500,000 in a combination of equity and convertible notes. On behalf of the company, I would like to again thank them for their belief in the company and its future and their tangible support in the form of financing.

We also successfully secured a $5 million equity standby facility with investment bank Fortrend Securities Pty Ltd, to allow Iatia to progress product development and marketing initiatives. The Fortrend facility will provide funds over the next three years, to help the establishment of a bigger presence in the US; accelerate product development; and for general corporate purposes. Fortrend has agreed to provide up to $5 million to Iatia, to be drawn down at the company's discretion. Our ability to do so is determined by the level of trading in Iatia shares.

Finally, we undertook a share purchase plan -- where we received considerable support from our shareholders. And I would like to take this opportunity to thank those shareholders who participated in the raising.

While small companies were threatened by the downturn, many larger companies cut back significantly in all their activities until they better understood the nature of the downturn. This meant that many of our potential customers slowed their rollout of new products, which in turn reduced the demand for innovative products like Iatia’s wavefront imaging. Our team had a somewhat frustrating year when they received emails like this from one major potential customer, and I quote, "As we approach the close of our fiscal year, we have just been through some portfolio re-shuffling in light of business performance, economic outlook, and competitive landscape changes and the business has decided to put the next generation platform on hold for now which would have been designed to take advantage of the QPI technology."

Nevertheless, our largest customer, GEHC has decided to integrate Iatia's technology as a standard feature in its INCell instrument; and to examine incorporation into other GEHC products. This agreement allows GEHC to integrate Iatia’s technology into all of its instrumentation and software systems, granting GEHC a worldwide, non-exclusive, license to make and sell "QPI" integrated GEHC products. The agreement provides for joint product development and joint marketing in the life sciences markets. Iatia stands to gain significant market recognition via GEHC's sales, marketing and promotional activities.

A set-back occurred with the prototype ophthalmology auto-refractor developed jointly with our European manufacturing partner. The application of wavefront technology to the human eye has proved more difficult than expected, but both Iatia and our partner are looking for solutions.

The published net loss of about $1.2m was up on the previous year, as revenue was lower due to the completion of the Australian government contract and there were timing issues related to GEHC ordering. In keeping with the difficult times, you will see that most major items of expenditure listed in the income statement were down, including employment expenses.

During the year, we have put more effort into understanding and looking for greater entry into the US market. The appointment of US based Dr David Hutton in mid 2008 as a marketing consultant has seen a steady flow of new contacts and prospects. The level of activity and interest is leading us to seek to employ a technical consultant in the US to service the enquiries and technical back up. This should accelerate the conversion of leads into concrete deals.

To enable us to better progress this activity, which we regard as critical for the future of our company, we have established a wholly owned US subsidiary.

We are also looking at forming joint ventures for specific manufactured products in the US, as funders are more willing to back a product than a licensing arrangement.

We have commissioned a review of the technology by an independent group; and this has given us confidence that we remain well ahead of the competition.

CEO Charles Laycock will go into more detail in his presentation about the move to the US and other opportunities.

Outlook for 2010

As I have indicated, the coming year will be focussed even more on the US. It is where our major customers are expected to come from; and they are open to innovative solutions. It is also where funding for particular products might be realised.

The life sciences market is expected to enjoy major growth in the next decade, and this will be the main thrust in the US as we look for profitable opportunities for licensing agreements of our technology with significant original equipment manufacturers. The health care bill passing through the US Congress at present can also be expected to generate additional developments and opportunities in this area.

We have new enquiries about the potential for a wavefront camera from a major Japanese industrial group. Discussions are in the early stage but are promising. This is a spin off from the defence technology work we have completed.

We continue to work on the defence potential of the technology and continue discussions with a number of parties.

So the outlook for 2010 and beyond is promising in these respects. As I said last year, 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 this promise is realised and that as a result our shareholders are rewarded with capital growth, profits, and dividends.

Whilst the outlook for 2010 and beyond is promising in an opportunities sense, we have a continuing need for additional capital in order both to take advantage of these opportunities and to maintain our current level of operation. These are matters fundamental to the future of the company, both in the immediate future and in the longer term. Your Board is continuing to give them urgent attention.

Conclusion

In closing, I would again like to thank you for attending today. I thank my Board colleagues 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.