IP Group PLC Portfolio co Avacta announces £22m funding round
July 15 2015 - 2:18AM
RNS Non-Regulatory
TIDMIPO
IP Group PLC
15 July 2015
FOR RELEASE ON 15 July 2015
IP Group plc - Portfolio company Avacta Group plc announces
GBP22m funding round
IP Group plc (LSE: IPO) ("IP Group" or "the Group"), the
developer of intellectual property-based businesses, is pleased to
note that portfolio company Avacta Group plc ("Avacta" or the
"Company"), the global provider of proprietary diagnostics tools,
consumables and reagents for life sciences, has raised, subject to
certain conditions, up to GBP22.0m (before expenses) by way of a
placing of new Ordinary Shares with both new and existing
shareholders at a price of 1.25 pence per share.
Avacta has developed proprietary affinity reagents - "Affimers"
- which are an engineered alternative to antibodies. Affimers are
small, simple, robust proteins that can be generated on short
timescales, manufactured reproducibly, have high specificity and,
as the Affimer generation process does not use animals, the
possible range of targets is not limited by an animal's immune
response. These characteristics address many of the currently
understood performance limiting factors of antibodies which, the
directors of the Company believe, provide a significant opportunity
to offer a superior alternative in many applications across the
life sciences markets.
The net proceeds of the placing will be used to accelerate
Avacta's development of the Affimer technology as a bio-therapeutic
platform, to continue the development of the Group's current
therapeutic Affimer assets, to initiate several more in-house
pre-clinical drug development programmes and to develop a small
range of platform technologies for half-life extension, targeting
and combination therapies. This activity will be incremental to the
ongoing development and commercialisation of Affimers as research
reagents and for diagnostics.
The placing is conditional upon, inter alia, the relevant
conditions in the Placing Agreement being satisfied or (if
applicable) waived and the passing of a special resolution at a
general meeting of the Company. Subject to shareholder approval
being given as aforementioned, it is expected that admission to AIM
will become effective in respect of, and that dealings on AIM will
commence in, the placing shares on or around 3 August 2015.
IP Group has agreed to subscribe for 240,000,000 placing shares,
representing GBP3.0 million. Following the completion of the
placing, IP Group will be beneficially interested in 1,577,296,980
ordinary shares in the Company, representing approximately 23.4% of
the enlarged issued share capital.
Commenting on the placing, Alan Aubrey, Chief Executive of IP
Group, said: "This fundraising will allow Avacta to build on its
success in developing Affimers as an alternative to antibodies that
can potentially overcome many of the latter's limitations. We look
forward to continuing to support the Company as it further explores
and develops this versatile and differentiated platform."
Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Avacta, commented:
"We have made excellent progress in demonstrating the potential of
the Affimer technology as a bio-therapeutic platform to rival
antibodies. We believe our proprietary Affimer technology has
significant competitive advantages that address the limitations of
antibodies and other non-antibody protein scaffolds which suggests
that they have the potential to become a leading alternative
bio-therapeutic platform. This fundraising will allow us to
resource the development of Affimers as therapeutics, in addition
to the ongoing development and commercialisation of Affimers as
research reagents, and we thank our existing investors for their
continuing support and welcome a number of new investors."
For more information, please contact:
IP Group plc www.ipgroupplc.com
Alan Aubrey, Chief Executive
Officer
Greg Smith, Chief Financial
Officer
Vicki Bradley, Communications +44 (0) 20 7444 0050
FTI Consulting
James Melville-Ross/Simon
Conway/
Victoria Foster Mitchell +44 (0)20 3727 1000
Notes for editors
About IP Group
IP Group is a leading UK intellectual property commercialisation
company, developing technology innovations primarily from its
research intensive partner universities. The Group offers more than
traditional venture capital, providing its companies with access to
business building expertise, networks, recruitment and business
support.
IP Group's portfolio comprises holdings in around 90 early-stage
to mature businesses across the Healthcare, Biotech, Cleantech and
Technology sectors. These businesses include Oxford Nanopore
Technologies, the DNA sequencing development company, Revolymer,
best known for its removable chewing gum, and Xeros, which has
received many accolades for its revolutionary clothes washing
techniques with a much reduced requirement for water.
For more information, please visit our website at
www.ipgroupplc.com.
ENDS
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