Issue of Equity

RNS Number : 2862Q

SkinBioTherapeutics PLC

18 February 2019

 

SkinBioTherapeutics plc

Issue of Equity and Related Party Transaction

SkinBioTherapeutics plc (AIM: SBTX) ("SkinBioTherapeutics" or the "Company"), a life sciences company focused on skin health, announces that it has raised a total of £1,500,000 via a placing of 9,375,000 new ordinary shares ("Placing Shares") at a price of 16 pence per share (the "Placing").

The Placing Shares have been issued to funds managed by Seneca Partners Limited ("Seneca"), an investment manager and existing substantial shareholder in SkinBioTherapeutics.

The proceeds of the Placing will be used by the Company to explore new opportunities for its existing SkinBiotix^® technology, support new areas of development and in doing so, explore the commercial opportunity in the broader microbiome arena.

Application will be made for the Placing Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM ("Admission") and it is expected that Admission will become effective on or around 21 February 2019. The Placing Shares will rank pari passu with the existing ordinary shares of 1 pence each.

Related party transactions

Seneca had an existing interest over 17,388,889 ordinary shares in the Company, representing 14.6 per cent. of the Company's issued share capital. Following the Placing, Seneca's beneficial shareholding in the Company will increase to 26,763,889 ordinary shares, representing 20.9 per cent. of the Company's issued share capital.

As such, Seneca is deemed to be a related party as defined in Rule 13 of the AIM Rules for Companies.

The directors of the Company, all of whom are independent of the Placing, having consulted with the Company's nominated adviser, Cairn Financial Advisers LLP, consider the terms of the Placing to be fair and reasonable insofar as the Company's shareholders are concerned.

Total voting rights

Following the issue of the Placing Shares, the Company will have 128,083,494 Ordinary Shares in issue, each share carrying the right to one vote. The Company does not hold any Ordinary Shares in treasury. The above figure of 128,708,494 Ordinary Shares 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 to their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the Financial Conduct Authority's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

Dr Cath O'Neill, CEO of SkinBioTherapeutics, commented:

"Seneca has been a substantial shareholder in SkinBioTherapeutics since the IPO, therefore we see this additional investment as a strong signal of continuing support of our business and strategy. The funding provides additional working capital and headroom to consider some of the other potential applications for the SkinBiotix^® technology as well as other skin conditions, such as psoriasis."

The information communicated within this announcement is deemed to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 and has been arranged for release by Doug Quinn, CFO of the Company. Upon the publication of this announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

For more information please contact:

SkinBioTherapeutics plc Dr. Cath O'Neill, CEO Doug Quinn, CFO	Tel: [phone]
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (Nominated Adviser) Tony Rawlinson / Sandy Jamieson / Richard Nash	Tel: [phone]
Turner Pope Investments (Joint Broker) Ben Turner / James Pope SP Angel Corporate Finance (Joint Broker) Vadim Alexandre / Abigail Wayne	Tel: [phone] Tel: [phone]
Instinctif Partners Melanie Toyne-Sewell / Deborah Bell / Phil Marriage	Tel: [phone] [e-mail]

Notes to Editors

About SkinBioTherapeutics plc

SkinBioTherapeutics is a life science company focused on skin health. The Company's proprietary platform technology, SkinBiotix®, is based upon discoveries made by CEO Dr. Cath O'Neill and Professor Andrew McBain.

SkinBioTherapeutics' platform applies research discoveries made on the activities of lysates derived from probiotic bacteria when applied to the skin.  The Company has shown that the SkinBiotix® platform can improve the barrier effect of skin models, protect skin models from infection and repair skin models.  Proof of principle studies have shown that the SkinBiotix® platform has beneficial attributes applicable to each of these areas. 

SkinBioTherapeutics received seed funding from the Tech Transfer office of the University of Manchester for the discovery of SkinBiotix®. The platform was subsequently spun out of the University of Manchester in March 2016 and was funded by OptiBiotix PLC (AIM: OPTI).

The Company joined AIM in April 2017 concurrent with raising £4.5 million from a placing of new ordinary shares.

The Company is based in Manchester, UK. For more information, visit www.skinbiotherapeutics.com.

 

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