TIDMRVG
RNS Number : 6263C
Retroscreen Virology Group PLC
03 May 2012
NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, DIRECTLY OR
INDIRECTLY, IN OR INTO ANY JURISDICTION WHERE TO DO SO WOULD
CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF THE RELEVANT LAWS OR REGULATIONS OF SUCH
JURISDICTION.
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS NOT AN ADMISSION DOCUMENT AND DOES NOT
CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SUBSCRIBE FOR OR PURCHASE ANY SECURITIES.
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A RECOMMENDATION REGARDING
ANY SECURITIES.
3 May 2012
Retroscreen Virology Group plc ("Retroscreen" or the
"Company")
First day of Dealings and Admission to AIM
The Board of Directors of Retroscreen, the viral challenge and
"Virometrics" specialist, is pleased to announce the Company's
admission to the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange and the
commencement of dealings in its Ordinary Shares on AIM at 8.00am
today. The Company's ticker symbol is "RVG" and the ISIN number of
the Ordinary Shares is GB00B6ZM0X53.
The Company has raised gross proceeds of GBP15.0 million in a
placing of 18,750,000 Ordinary Shares at 80 pence per share. On the
basis of 40,976,920 Ordinary Shares being admitted to trading on
AIM, and the Placing Price, the market capitalisation of the
Company at Admission will be approximately GBP32.8 million.
Highlights
- Retroscreen is a virology healthcare business that provides
clinical services, focused on the Viral Challenge Model ("VCM"),
and pre-clinical analytical services primarily to large, global
pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology organisations.
- The Group has grown and developed the VCM for evidencing the
efficacy of antiviral and viral therapeutics in RSV, flu and cold.
As the business develops, it intends to expand into adjacent
clinical areas, such as asthma. It also intends to leverage
"Virometrics", harvesting the potential of its research for the
discovery and creation of proprietary intellectual property.
- Admission to AIM with a market capitalisation of approximately GBP32.8 million.
- The Company has raised gross proceeds of GBP15.0 million,
including GBP2.4 million from existing shareholders, Directors and
employees, via the placing of 18,750,000 Ordinary Shares at 80
pence per share; net proceeds raised of GBP14.0m.
- A further GBP2.4 million, before expenses, has been raised for
selling shareholders via a placing of existing shares at the
Placing Price.
- Proceeds are to be used to invest in infrastructure,
facilities and personnel, to allow the Group to pursue its
development strategy and as general working capital to fund the
Group's 2012 and 2013 pipeline.
Commenting today, Kym Denny, CEO of Retroscreen, said: "I am
delighted that Retroscreen has today joined AIM and I would like to
welcome all our new shareholders to the Company. It is a very
exciting day for Retroscreen, and one which we believe will be
transformational for the development of the business. We are all
looking forward to developing the unique Retroscreen model and
growing the business as a public company alongside our existing and
new shareholders."
Numis Securities Limited is acting as nominated adviser and
broker in relation to the Admission.
Placing Statistics
Placing Price per share 80.0p
Number of Existing Ordinary Shares 22,039,420
Number of Placing Shares being issued pursuant
to the Placing 18,750,000
Number of Ordinary Shares in issue at Admission* 40,976,920
Percentage of Enlarged Share Capital represented
by Placing Shares 45.8%
Gross proceeds of the Placing GBP15.0 million
Estimated net proceeds of the Placing receivable GBP14.0 million
by the Company
Market capitalisation of the Company at GBP32.8 million
the Placing Price
TIDM Code/AIM Symbol RVG
ISIN GB00B6ZM0X53
* This includes 187,500 Ordinary Shares issued to Numis in
respect of a corporate finance fee.
Further details including the Admission Document are available
on the Company's
website at www.retroscreen.com.
Terms defined in the Admission Document have the same meaning in
this announcement unless otherwise stated.
Enquiries:
Retroscreen Virology Group plc +44 207 756 1300
Kym Denny (CEO)
Graham Yeatman (FD)
Numis Securities Limited +44 207 260 1000
Michael Meade / Freddie Barnfield (Nominated Adviser)
James Black / Michael Burke (Corporate Broking)
Numis Securities Limited, which is authorised and regulated by
the Financial Services Authority, is acting for Retroscreen and for
no-one else in connection with the Placing and Admission and will
not be responsible to anyone other than Retroscreen for providing
the protections afforded to clients of Numis Securities Limited, or
for providing advice in relation to the Placing and Admission or
any matters referred to this announcement.
Certain statements in this announcement are "Forward Looking
statements". These Forward Looking statements are not based on
historical facts but rather on management's expectations regarding
the Group's future growth, results of operations, performance,
future capital and other expenditures (including the amount, nature
and sources of funding thereof), planned expansion and business
prospects and opportunities. Such Forward Looking statements
reflect management's current beliefs and assumptions and are based
on information currently available to management. Forward Looking
statements involve significant known and unknown risks and
uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to
differ materially from the results discussed in the Forward Looking
statements including risks associated with vulnerability to general
economic market and business conditions, competition, environmental
and other regulatory changes or actions by governmental
authorities, the availability of capital, reliance on key
personnel, uninsured and underinsured losses and other factors,
many of which are beyond control of the Group. Although the Forward
Looking statements contained in this announcement are based upon
what management believes to be reasonable assumptions, the Company
cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with
these Forward Looking statements.
Background Information
Retroscreen has pioneered the commercialisation of the Viral
Challenge Model (or the VCM) that enables research into viral
infection and also enables pharmaceutical companies to accelerate
and reduce the cost of bringing antiviral therapeutics and vaccines
to market. In the VCM, healthy volunteers are isolated in a
specialist facility and are exposed to a characterised respiratory
virus and then observed for ten to fifteen days. During this time
and through the use of Retroscreen's VCM, they may either be
treated with an experimental drug candidate, or may participate in
a virus only research programme. Volunteers are closely monitored
in all cases with Retroscreen collecting samples and recording data
including, for example, as to the effectiveness of the drug.
The VCM has, to date, been used primarily in the growing market
for flu and cold testing, estimated to be sized at GBP612 million
per annum, in relation to which Retroscreen has a strong pipeline.
The Group intends to expand the use of the VCM into a range of
other adjacent markets, such as testing drugs to treat
virus-exacerbated asthma, estimated to be a market sized at GBP357
million per annum. The Directors believe that the VCM provides a
vehicle to harvest unique human samples that gives extensive
insight into the human immune system and its response to viruses
which will also allow the Group to exploit its own proprietary
"Virometric"data and biological materials. This in turn, could
enable Retroscreen to collaborate with leading research groups to
provide direction for the next generation of therapeutics and
diagnostics, changing the way in which vaccines and anti-virals are
developed.
Strategy & Use of Proceeds
Retroscreen's forward looking strategy involves three key
components:
- to dominate the respiratory viral clinical testing market,
particularly Phase Ib to IIb trials, including scaling up its
existing operations with an additional bespoke quarantine unit;
- to expand the VCM into adjacent and sizeable markets, for
example asthma and COPD, targeting the development of its AD-VCM
for roll-out to clients by the end of 2013; and
- to continue to leverage "Virometrics", harvesting the
potential of the VCM for discovery and the creation of proprietary
intellectual property. The Group will prioritise its focus
initially on both conducting further experiments around its T cell
Epitope discovery and the further development of its Virobase and
Biorepository.
The Directors believe there is increasing demand for the VCM and
that Retroscreen is the only commercial organisation that has this
extensive clinical testing know-how applying this model and,
accordingly, intend to use the proceeds of the Placing to provide
working capital to both extend and expand the Group's operations
and to ensure that the Group has capital to enable it to exploit
discoveries.
More specifically, the Directors intend to apply the proceeds of
the Placing as follows:
- to invest in infrastructure and expand facilities and office
locations, including an additional bespoke VCM unit as well as
information technology systems in order to provide capacity for and
to efficiently manage an increased level of viral challenge
quarantines and/or to run viral challenge quarantines concurrently.
As the number of subjects required for Retroscreen's pipeline
increases, the Group intends to establish satellite offices and
clinics in various locations around the UK in order to more easily
access potential volunteers and employable staff;
- to expand and broaden the scientific team and testing
capability, including the addition of expertise in new target areas
for the VCM, such as asthma, and the further development of its
internal Virometrics capabilities as outlined above;
- to acquire additional stocks of virus and to characterise and
develop further inventory from existing proprietary stocks to the
required GMP standards;
- towards harvesting the results and experiences of the VCM
studies, including the establishment of its proprietary Virobase
and the Biorepository;
- towards the continued protection of its proprietary
intellectual property resulting from its VCM experiences and to
develop and optimise opportunities to a point where partnership or
further funding can be best evaluated on a risk return; and
- as general working capital to fund the Group's 2012 and 2013 pipeline.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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