Prospectus lodged with ASIC
Stem Cell Sciences plc
14 March 2007
14 March 2007
Stem Cell Sciences plc
("Stem Cell Sciences", "SCS" or "the Company")
Proposed listing on Australian Stock Exchange
Stem Cell Sciences plc, the global biotechnology company focused on the
commercialisation of stem cells and stem cell technologies in research and
cell-based therapies, announces that it has lodged a Prospectus with the
Australian Securities and Investments Commission for the issue of 9.3 million
CDI's(1) to raise a minimum of A$10 million with over subscriptions up to 11.2
million CDI's to raise up to A$12 million at an issue price of A$1.07(2) and
dual listing on the Australian Stock Exchange.
It is anticipated that the offer will open in Australia on Monday 19 March and
the Group's shares will list on the Australian Stock Exchange in April 2007.
SCS' shares will continue to be traded on the Alternative Investment Market of
the London Stock Exchange.
(1) The New Securities that the Company is offering under this Prospectus are
CHESS Depository Interests (CDIs). The main difference between holding CDIs and
Shares is that the holder of CDIs has beneficial ownership of the underlying
Shares instead of legal title. CHESS Depository Nominees Pty Ltd ('CDN'), a
wholly owned subsidiary of ASX, holds the legal title to the underlying Shares.
Holders of CDIs will have the same economic benefits of holding the underlying
Shares. In particular, holders of CDIs will be able to transfer and settle
transactions electronically on ASX. Shares and CDIs are interchangeable in that
Shares traded on the AIM market may be transferred to the ASX where they are
traded as CDIs and vice versa.
(2) The issue price was calculated on the day of lodgment as a 15% discount to the
30 day Volume Weighted Average share price as traded on the London AIM exchange
prior to lodgment. Approximate exchange rates are A$1.07=£0.44
- Ends -
For further information, please contact:
Stem Cell Sciences plc 0131 662 9829
Peter Mountford, President and CEO
Sue Furber, Director of Finance
Weber Shandwick Financial 020 7067 0700
Louise Robson or James White
Notes to Editors
Stem Cell Sciences plc (AIM: STEM) is a global biotechnology company,
established in Melbourne, Australia in 1994, providing products in the
burgeoning stem cell research and drug discovery markets, in addition to the
targeted development of cell-based therapies for neurodegenerative disease and
injury.
The Company has established a leading intellectual property (IP) and technology
portfolio that enables the commercial application of stem cells in drug
discovery, providing the Company with early-stage revenue streams and technology
development for at scale cell production of SCS cell-based therapeutics. SCS
principal focus is in neurological disease. Revenues in the neurotech market,
including pharmaceuticals, devices and diagnostics, grew 10% in 2005 to US$110
billion (Neurotech Insights, Volume 2/3 April 30 2006).
SCS operates as a group of independent operations with offices and laboratories
in Edinburgh and Cambridge, UK, Kobe, Japan, Melbourne, Australia and San
Francisco, USA (office only). Each SCS facility is affiliated with an academic
centre of excellence. These include the Institute of Stem Cell Research (ISCR),
Edinburgh, UK, RIKEN Centre for Development Biology, Kobe, Japan and the
Australian Stem Cell Centre, Melbourne, Australia.
SCS has four business units, each dedicated to different aspects of the stem
cell business opportunity.
SC Proven(R) provides cell culture media (liquid formulations) and reagents that
enable the growth and differentiation of stem cells. The first SC Proven(R)
product, "ESGRO CompleteTM", a cell culture medium capable of consistent growth
of mouse embryonic stem cells without serum or feeder cell support was launched
in February 2006. This was followed by "HEScGROTM", the first animal-component
free cell culture medium to enable improved growth of human embryonic stem
cells, in January 2007. These products are manufactured and distributed by
Chemicon International, now part of Millipore Corporation.
SC Licensing licenses SCS proprietary technologies, such as Internal Ribosome
Entry Site (IRES), Stem Cell Selection, hMADS (human adipose derived stem cells)
and Neural Stem Cell Technology for application in laboratory-based research and
discovery. SCS has licensed technology to major pharmaceutical and biotechnology
companies including Merck & Co, Pfizer, Sanofi Aventis, GSK, Deltagen Inc and
Lexicon Genetics Inc and others.
SC Services provides specialised stem cell production for basic research and
drug discovery, including high-throughput applications through an automated cell
production facility in Cambridge UK. The services offered include the creation
of specific cell lines for a customer, the modification of existing cell lines
so that they can be grown in serum free SC Proven(R) media, and the supply of
cells for drug screening in multi-well plate format.
SC Therapies' goal is to develop safe and effective cell-based therapies for
currently incurable diseases. Initial research is being directed to developing
and characterising cell lines of potential therapeutic value in the treatment of
spinal injury, Parkinson's disease, eye disease, epilepsy and Duchenne Muscular
Dystrophy (DMD). Programmes to test SCS' proprietary stem cells in animal models
of spinal cord injury have been initiated in a number of disease models and
preclinical studies for the treatment of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy are
anticipated in 2007-8.
For further information on the company please visit:
www.stemcellsciences.com
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange