Results of Placing and Subscription

RNS Number : 2267W

Avacta Group PLC

30 July 2018

 

THE INFORMATION COMMUNICATED WITHIN THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS DEEMED TO CONSTITUTE INSIDE INFORMATION AS STIPULATED UNDER THE MARKET ABUSE REGULATION (EU) NO. 596/2014. UPON THE PUBLICATION OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT, THIS INSIDE INFORMATION IS NOW CONSIDERED TO BE IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT AND THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS RESTRICTED AND IS NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN, INTO OR FROM THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AUSTRALIA, CANADA, JAPAN, THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND, THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA OR ANY OTHER COUNTRY, TERRITORY OR JURISDICTION IN WHICH SUCH RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION WOULD BE UNLAWFUL.

FURTHER, THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS MADE FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL OR ISSUE OR SOLICITATION TO BUY, SUBSCRIBE FOR OR OTHERWISE ACQUIRE SHARES IN AVACTA GROUP PLC IN ANY JURISDICTION IN WHICH ANY SUCH OFFER OR SOLICITATION WOULD BE UNLAWFUL.

Avacta Group plc

("Avacta", the "Group" or the "Company")

Results of Placing and Subscription

Notice of General Meeting

Pursuant to the announcement released earlier today in relation to the proposed Fundraising (the "Fundraising Announcement"), the Company is pleased to announce that finnCap, WG Partners and Turner Pope, on behalf of the Company, have successfully raised £11.6 million (before expenses) through the placing of 38,952,724 Placing Shares and 7,520,000 Subscription Shares with new and existing institutional investors at a price of 25 pence per share, representing a discount of approximately 19 per cent. to the average 30 day closing price of the Ordinary Shares on AIM to the 27  July 2018, being 30 pence per share.

finnCap is acting as Nominated Adviser and joint broker, alongside WG Partners and Turner Pope who are also acting as joint brokers in connection with the Placing (together the "Joint Brokers").

Eliot Forster, Alastair Smith, Alan Aubrey and Trevor Nicholls, Directors of the Company, each of whom indicated that they intended to subscribe for New Ordinary Shares, have now confirmed their subscriptions for a total of 280,000 New Ordinary Shares on the same terms as the Placing, raising gross proceeds of £70,000.

The allotment and issue of the Placing Shares and Subscription Shares would exceed the Company's existing authorities and therefore Shareholder approval will be required. Accordingly, a circular to Shareholders will be posted shortly to include the notice convening a General Meeting.

DIRECTORS' INTERESTS

The participating Directors' interests as at today and following completion of the Subscription and the Placing are as follows:

Director	Existing beneficial interest in Ordinary Shares	Subscription Shares subscribed for	Placing Shares subscribed for	Interest in Ordinary Shares after Third Admission	% of Enlarged Share Capital
Eliot Forster	-	120,000	-	120,000	0.10%
Alastair Smith	606,309	-	40,000	646,309	0.56%
Alan Aubrey	191,334	-	80,000	271,334	0.23%
Trevor Nicholls	35,000	-	40,000	75,000	0.06%

GENERAL MEETING

A circular and notice convening the General Meeting, to be held at the offices of Walker Morris LLP, Kings Court, 12 King Street, Leeds LS1 2HL at 10.00 a.m. on 17 August 2018, will be sent to Shareholders shortly and available from the Company's website at www.avacta.com. The General Meeting has been convened to consider and if thought fit approve, amongst other things, the issue of the Placing Shares (other than the First Placing Shares) and the Subscription Shares.

The Directors believe the Fundraising to be the most appropriate way to provide the capital necessary to meet the Company's future requirements.  Should the Fundraising not proceed for any reason, the Company would need to find alternative funding or else face future uncertainty.  The Directors urge Shareholders to vote in favour of the Special Resolution numbered 1 set out in the notice of General Meeting.

ADMISSION

Applications will be made to the London Stock Exchange for admission of the EIS/VCT Shares, the General Shares and the Subscription Shares to trading on AIM. It is expected that admission will become effective and trading will commence in the First Placing Shares at 8.00 a.m. on 3 August 2018, the Second Placing Shares at 8.00 a.m. on 20 August 2018 and the Third Placing Shares and the Subscription Shares at 8.00 a.m. on 21 August 2018.

Following Third Admission, the Company will have 115,462,211 ordinary shares of 10 pence each in issue and shareholders may use this figure as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company under the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

Other than where defined, capitalised terms used in this announcement have the meanings given to them in the Fundraising Announcement.

For further information from Avacta Group plc, please contact:

Avacta Group plc Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer Tony Gardiner, Chief Financial Officer	Tel:  [phone] www.avacta.com
finnCap Ltd Geoff Nash / Giles Rolls - Nominated Adviser Tim Redfern / Nikita Jain - Corporate Broking WG Partners Nigel Birks / Nigel Barnes David Wilson / Claes Spang	Tel:  [phone] www.finncap.com Tel:  [phone] Tel:  [phone] www.wgpartners.co.uk
Turner Pope James Pope Andy Thacker	Tel:  [phone] www.turnerpope.com
Zyme Communications (Trade and Regional Media) Katie Odgaard Yellow Jersey (Financial Media and IR) Sarah Hollins	Tel: [phone] [e-mail]  Tel: [phone] [e-mail]

About Avacta Group plc (www.avacta.com)

Avacta's principal focus is on its proprietary Affimer^® technology which is a novel engineered alternative to antibodies that has wide application in Life Sciences for diagnostics, therapeutics and general research and development.

Antibodies dominate markets worth in excess of $50bn despite their shortcomings. Affimer technology has been designed to address many of these negative performance issues, principally; the time taken to generate new antibodies, the reliance on an animal's immune response, poor specificity in many cases, and batch to batch variability.  Affimer technology is based on a small protein that can be quickly generated to bind with high specificity and affinity to a wide range of protein targets.

Avacta has a pre-clinical biotech development programme with an in-house focus on immuno-oncology and bleeding disorders as well as partnered development programmes. Avacta is commercialising non-therapeutic Affimer reagents through licensing to developers of life sciences research tools and diagnostics.

Notification and public disclosure of transactions by persons discharging managerial responsibilities and persons closely associated with them

1.	Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated
a)	Name	Alastair Smith
2.	Reason for the Notification
a)	Position/status	Chief Executive Officer
b)	Initial notification/Amendment	Initial notification
3.	Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor
a)	Name	Avacta Group Plc
b)	LEI	2138009U3EG31OPMGH36
4.	Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted
a)	Description of the Financial instrument, type of instrument	Ordinary shares of 10p
	Identification code	GB00BYYW9G87
b)	Nature of the transaction	Purchase of ordinary shares
c)	Price(s) and volume(s)	Price(s) Volume(s) 25 pence 40,000
d)	Aggregated information: ·      Aggregated volume ·      Price	See above
e)	Date of the transaction	30 July 2018
f)	Place of the transaction	London Stock Exchange, AIM Market (XLON)

Notification and public disclosure of transactions by persons discharging managerial responsibilities and persons closely associated with them

1.	Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated
a)	Name	Eliot Forster
2.	Reason for the Notification
a)	Position/status	Chairman
b)	Initial notification/Amendment	Initial notification
3.	Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor
a)	Name	Avacta Group Plc
b)	LEI	2138009U3EG31OPMGH36
4.	Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted
a)	Description of the Financial instrument, type of instrument	Ordinary shares of 10p
	Identification code	GB00BYYW9G87
b)	Nature of the transaction	Purchase of ordinary shares
c)	Price(s) and volume(s)	Price(s) Volume(s) 25 pence 120,000
d)	Aggregated information: ·      Aggregated volume ·      Price	See above
e)	Date of the transaction	30 July 2018
f)	Place of the transaction	London Stock Exchange, AIM Market (XLON)

Notification and public disclosure of transactions by persons discharging managerial responsibilities and persons closely associated with them

1.	Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated
a)	Name	Alan Aubrey
2.	Reason for the Notification
a)	Position/status	Non-executive director
b)	Initial notification/Amendment	Initial notification
3.	Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor
a)	Name	Avacta Group Plc
b)	LEI	2138009U3EG31OPMGH36
4.	Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted
a)	Description of the Financial instrument, type of instrument	Ordinary shares of 10p
	Identification code	GB00BYYW9G87
b)	Nature of the transaction	Purchase of ordinary shares
c)	Price(s) and volume(s)	Price(s) Volume(s) 25 pence 80,000
d)	Aggregated information: ·      Aggregated volume ·      Price	See above
e)	Date of the transaction	30 July 2018
f)	Place of the transaction	London Stock Exchange, AIM Market (XLON)

Notification and public disclosure of transactions by persons discharging managerial responsibilities and persons closely associated with them

1.	Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated
a)	Name	Trevor Nicholls
2.	Reason for the Notification
a)	Position/status	Non-executive Director
b)	Initial notification/Amendment	Initial notification
3.	Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor
a)	Name	Avacta Group Plc
b)	LEI	2138009U3EG31OPMGH36
4.	Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted
a)	Description of the Financial instrument, type of instrument	Ordinary shares of 10p
	Identification code	GB00BYYW9G87
b)	Nature of the transaction	Purchase of ordinary shares
c)	Price(s) and volume(s)	Price(s) Volume(s) 25 pence 40,000
d)	Aggregated information: ·      Aggregated volume ·      Price	See above
e)	Date of the transaction	30 July 2018
f)	Place of the transaction	London Stock Exchange, AIM Market (XLON)

 

END

 

 

MSCURRBRWOABOAR