Placing and Appointment of joint broker
Avacta Group plc
Fundraising
Appointment of Joint Broker
Avacta Group plc ("Avacta" or the "Company") which provides biophysical
analysis technology and expert technical services to the biopharmaceutical
industry, and molecular diagnostics tools for defence and healthcare
applications, announces that it has successfully completed a fundraising of
£2.71 million (before expenses) with a number of new and existing shareholders.
The Company also announces the appointment of BankOra Limited ("BankOra") as
joint broker to the Company.
The Placing
The Company has today entered into a placing agreement with BankOra under the
terms of which BankOra has agreed, as agent for the Company, to use its
reasonable endeavours to procure placees for 108,400,000 Ordinary Shares ("the
Placing Shares") at the placing price of 2.5p per new share ("the Placing").
Application has been made for the Placing Shares to be admitted to trading on
AIM ("Admission") which is expected to take place on Thursday, 5 April 2007.
Completion of the Placing is conditional upon Admission.
Under the terms of the Placing, certain directors of the Company have agreed
to subscribe in aggregate for 3,600,000 Placing Shares.
Trading Update
Since joining AIM in August 2006, Avacta has fulfilled the technical and
commercial objectives as set out in the admission document. These achievements
have been the development of the detection and analysis technologies to proof
of concept stage, securing further commercial collaborations and the
development of the analytical services operations. A suite of technical
services are now being provided to a growing number of companies in the
biopharmaceutical and healthcare industries, endorsing the need for solutions
based upon biophysical methods.
The Company has undertaken projects for 20 clients, including four of the
leading European biopharmaceutical companies. Over 75% of current business is
repeat business and a strong pipeline of work for delivery both in the current
and next financial year is in place.
In a separate announcement today, the Company has launched The ViVax Toolkitâ„¢
which provides full biophysical characterisation of viral vaccines and
complements the existing Biophysical Toolkit® for the characterisation of
therapeutic proteins.
Outlook
The Company is now well positioned to commercialise its proven technology and
generate product sales. The net proceeds from the Placing will be used to
deliver pre-production prototypes of biopharmaceutical analysis technologies
and other high value molecular diagnostics applications for defence and
healthcare. First product sales delivered through partnerships with original
equipment manufacturers are expected in 2008.
The significantly strengthened balance sheet will enable the Company to invest
further in the technical services division to enable it to meet the demand that
has been evidenced such that it is expected to make a positive contribution to
the Group's cashflow in the next financial year.
In addition, the Board continues to look at complementary technologies, routes
to market and potential acquisitions where they can deliver further shareholder
value.
Professor Alastair Smith, Chief Executive, Avacta Group plc, commented:
"In the nine months since coming to AIM we have seen an exceptional level of
progress and commitment from the Avacta team. We stated when we joined AIM that
further funding would be needed to take our products forward to
commercialisation and I am delighted with the level of support shown by our
existing and new shareholders.
"The average cost of developing a biopharmaceutical is now $1.2 billion and the
success rate for new compounds entering the development pipeline is only
20-30%. In some cases the failure of compounds is caused by problems which
Avacta's technology and services could identify at an early stage. This prior
knowledge would enable developers to avoid costly pitfalls and accelerate the
commercial process.
"The rapidly growing number of clients from the biopharmaceutical sector using
our unique biophysical analysis services endorses the needs for Avacta's new
technology products and these funds will allow us to make the necessary
investment to deliver on our plans to bring ground breaking new products to
market."
4 April 2007
Enquiries:
Avacta Group plc Tel: 0870 835 4367
Alastair Smith, Chief Executive
WH Ireland Limited Tel: 0161 832 2174
David Youngman, Director, Corporate Finance
BankOra Limited Tel: 020 7099 1943
Henry Turcan, Director
Nexus Financial Ltd Tel: 020 7451 7050
Nicholas Nelson, Director Mob: 07921 522 920
nicholas.nelson@nexusgroup.co.uk
Latest directors dealings
- 24 minutes ago Savills
- 44 minutes ago Everyman Media Group
- 1 hour ago Croda International
- 2 hours ago Diageo
- 2 hours ago IMI