Date: 2013-08-21
Type of information: Loan
Company: Cyprotex (UK)
Investors: Harwood Capital (UK)
Amount:
Funding type: loan
Planned used:
Others: * On August 21, 2013, Cyprotex, a specialist ADME-Tox Contract Research Organisation (CRO), has announced that it has entered into a loan note subscription agreement with Trident Private Equity Fund III LP, a fund managed by Harwood Capital LLP. Harwood Capital, through its managed fund Oryx International Growth Fund Limited currently holds 61,250,000 ordinary shares in the Company representing a holding of 27.3% of the issued share capital. Under the terms of the Subscription Agreement, Trident Private Equity Fund III LP irrevocably has undertaken, subject to certain conditions, to subscribe for £3 million of redeemable loan notes in the Company. In addition, TPE III has undertaken to subscribe for convertible loan notes in the Company which are not taken up by Shareholders under an open offer of up to £4 million of Convertible Loan Notes to all Shareholders, further details of which are given below. The Convertible Loan Notes will be convertible into ordinary shares at a price of 6 pence per share, subject to adjustment in certain circumstances including without limitation, discounted rights issues, the payment of non-cash dividends and bonus issues, and likewise the redemption price for the Redeemable Loan Notes will be based on the higher of a notional conversion at 6 pence per share, also subject to adjustment in the same circumstances as the Convertible Loan Notes, or their nominal value. Further details of the Redeemable Loan Notes and the Convertible Loan Notes will be given in the Circular (as defined below).
As stated in the Company’s interim statement of 7 August 2013, the Board believes it can, with the support of the Company’s new investors, continue to grow Cyprotex, both through investment in new technology, particularly in its Watertown site, and through selective acquisitions to enhance its customer service offering. The Board strongly believes there are major opportunities to significantly grow the business. Such opportunities arise primarily, but not exclusively, from the pharmaceutical industry. As previously alluded to on a number of occasions, there is a continuing drive to reduce costs in drug development. This includes outsourcing ever-increasing elements of this process and also assessing the likelihood of ADME-Tox issues as early, and thus as cheaply, as possible in the process. The Board believes that both of these factors bode well for the growth of Cyprotex\'s business. Many of these opportunities for growth are in the US and to capture them will require additional investment in the Company’s US facilities to replicate both the high throughput analytical capabilities and advanced automated workflows attained presently in the UK giving significantly increased operational capacity. US operations would then be capable of matching the range, standards and performance of the facilities in the UK.
Therapeutic area:
