The Company is pleased to announce the successful completion of the non-pre-emptive placing of new ordinary shares in the capital of the Company (the “Ordinary Shares“) announced earlier today (the “Placing“).
A total of 7,368,427 new Ordinary Shares (the “Placing Shares“) have been placed at a price of 95 pence per Placing Share (the “Offer Price“) by Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited (“Stifel“), acting as sole bookrunner in respect of the Placing. Concurrently with the Placing, the Company’s chair, Dr Eliot Forster, has subscribed for 15,000 new Ordinary Shares at the Offer Price (the “Management Subscription Shares” and the “Management Subscription“, respectively) pursuant to a subscription letter entered into with the Company.
Together, the Placing Shares and the Management Subscription Shares in aggregate comprise 7,383,427 new Ordinary Shares, raising total gross proceeds of approximately £7 million. The Offer Price represents a discount of approximately 4.0 per cent. to the middle market closing price of an Ordinary Share on 17 October 2022. The Placing Shares and the Subscription Shares together represent approximately 3 per cent. of the issued share capital of the Company prior to the Placing and the Subscription.
The Company consulted with a number of its major shareholders prior to the Placing and is pleased by the support it has received from both existing and new shareholders.
An application has been made to London Stock Exchange plc for the Placing Shares and the Management Subscription Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM (“Admission“). It is expected that settlement of the Placing Shares and the Management Subscription Shares and Admission will become effective and dealings in the Placing Shares and the Management Subscription Shares will commence at 8.00 a.m. on 20 October 2022. The Placing and the Management Subscription are conditional upon, among other things, Admission becoming effective and the placing agreement entered into earlier today between the Company and Stifel not being terminated in accordance with its terms.
The Placing Shares and Management Subscription Shares, when issued, will be credited as fully paid and will rank pari passu in all respects with the Company’s then existing Ordinary Shares, including the right to receive all dividends and other distributions declared, made or paid on or in respect of such shares after the date of issue.
Total voting rights
Following Admission, the Company’s enlarged issued ordinary share capital will be 263,732,659. This figure may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change in their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the FCA’s Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.
Circular and Open Offer
A Circular, including further details of the Open Offer, is expected to be dispatched to Qualifying Shareholders tomorrow, and will also be available on the Company’s website at the same time at www.avacta.com.
Convertible Bond Offering
The Convertible Bond Offering announced earlier today, pursuant to which the Company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Addition Finance (Jersey) Limited, has agreed to issue convertible bonds of £55 million in aggregate principal amount with an issue price of 95 per cent, of the principal amount (resulting in gross cash proceeds of £52.25m) due 2027 to a fund advised by Heights Capital Ireland LLC, a global equity and equity-linked focused investor, is expected to settle on 20 October 2022.
Capitalised terms used but not otherwise defined in the text of this announcement shall have the meaning given to them in the Company’s announcement from earlier today.
Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Avacta, commented:
“We are delighted to announce the successful financing and would like to thank all of our existing and new investors for supporting the Company in connection with the strategic acquisition of Launch Diagnostics. This financing allows us to progress our M&A-led growth strategy for Avacta’s diagnostics division and progress a pipeline of potential acquisitions in the European diagnostics sector to build a fully integrated and differentiated diagnostics business with global reach alongside the continued funding of Avacta’s Therapeutics division to progress AVA6000 through the clinic and further develop the broader oncology pipeline.”
This announcement is released by the Company and contains inside information under the UK Market Abuse Regulation, encompassing information relating to the Fundraise described above. The person responsible for arranging for the release of this announcement on behalf of the Company is Tony Gardiner, Chief Financial Officer.