From The Times5 Nov 2017 20:50
Troubled biotech minnow Redx Pharma is poised to rejoin the AIM market tomorrow, as the chairman takes back control of the company and seeks to put an end to a torrid period.
The Cheshire-based drugs maker, which shocked investors when it collapsed into administration in May, has been through an overhaul that involved cutting staff numbers and reshuffling its board.
It is also on the hunt for a new chief executive after Neil Murray left the company.
Redx fell into administration after Liverpool city council demanded repayment of a �2m loan it had made to the company in 2012. The shares were suspended and investors were left nursing heavy paper losses � and demanding changes from the new chairman, Iain Ross.
Administrators at FRP Advisory were parachuted in to run the business, and sold off a key asset to secure its rescue.
Now Ross, a turnaround specialist, is hoping to regain the trust of shareholders � among them veteran venture capitalist Jon Moulton. �We need to get back credibility,� said Ross, 63.
�While there is a new board and management team, there is a credibility gap. We need to fill that.�
The �2m loan, which was advanced to support an expansion in Liverpool, was called in by the council in May. The company had decided to move its headquarters to Cheshire rather than build a bigger facility on Merseyside.
The demand for repayment sparked a war of words between Redx and the council, which allegedly refused to meet Ross.
Since being appointed administrator, FRP has secured the $40m (�30m) sale of a pre-clinical cancer treatment to Loxo Oncology of the US � allowing Redx to repay its creditors and keeping it liquid until at least early 2019. Ross, who joined in May, wrote to shareholders over the weekend to lay out his plans for the company.
Dominic Jackson, 36, who has worked in private equity since 2007, has been appointed chief financial officer. Peter Presland, 67, former chief executive of CE Health, will join the board as a non-executive director. Meanwhile, staff numbers have been cut from 85 to 38.
The chairman is also streamlining its drug targets, focusing on fewer projects. Redx is poised to start clinical trials of a treatment for hard-to-reach cancers, early next year.