Vernalis plc – Placing to raise £40m
Shore Capital are delighted to have acted as Joint Bookrunner in the Placing to raise £40 million for Vernalis plc (“Vernalis” or the “Company”).
Highlights
• Placing to raise £40 million (before expenses) for the Company through the issue of 80,000,000 new Ordinary Shares at a Placing Price of 50 pence per share
• The Placing Shares have been conditionally placed by the Joint Bookrunners with institutional investors and certain Directors.
• The Placing Price is equivalent to the closing middle market price of an Ordinary Share on 25 April 2016 (of 50 pence per Ordinary Share)
• The net proceeds of the Placing, together with the Company’s existing cash resources, are intended to provide sufficient working capital to cover a conservative risk-adjusted roll-out plan for Tuzistra® XR, the forthcoming re-launch of Moxatag® and the future launches of the remaining four US cough cold programmes under development with Tris, whilst enabling increased promotional activity, if deemed appropriate
• The Placing is on a non pre-emptive basis and is conditional on, inter alia, the passing of certain Resolutions at a General Meeting to be held on 12 May 2016
• Canaccord Genuity and Shore Capital are acting as Joint Bookrunners in connection with the Placing. Canaccord Genuity is also Nominated Adviser to the Company. The Placing is not being underwritten
Ian Garland, CEO of Vernalis commented: “We continue our transition to a sustainably profitable specialty pharmaceutical company. We have made significant investment in launching Tuzistra® XR, our first extended release cough cold product, and we look forward to leveraging our focused primary care sales force with the forthcoming re-launch of Moxatag® later this year. Our cough cold pipeline is maturing to plan with CCP-07 and CCP-08 on track to file new drug applications (NDAs) this year and two further cough cold programmes in active development, targeted to achieve proof-of-concept before the end of 2016.
“We are emerging from the first cough cold season of selling Tuzistra® XR with the product gaining commercial traction steadily, despite a mild US cough cold season. With launch data now in hand, we expect the net proceeds of the Placing together with our existing cash resources will provide sufficient working capital to support the planned roll-out of the other products in this franchise.
“We remain excited by the outlook and thank shareholders for their continuing support.”