Last checked at 7 Jun 2016 07:00
Onzima Ventures PLC
("Onzima" or the "Company")
Issue of Equity and Trading Update
The Company is pleased to announce that it has raised £150,000 by way of subscription directly with the Company via the issue of 15,000,000 new ordinary shares at 1p per share ("Subscription Shares") together with warrants on a one for one basis exercisable at 2p per share and expiring 7 June 2017.
Subscribers for the Subscription Shares include institutional and existing investors, following expressions of interest in the stock. Funds raised will be used to continue to develop the investment portfolio of the Company and for general working capital purposes.
The Directors of the Company have been very active in building the interests of the Company, which have now evolved into two distinct divisions, the Asset Trading Division and the Business Development Division. The Company seeks to make short to medium term returns from its asset trading in order to fund its business development investments and cover overheads.
Asset Trading
Following recent participation in several financings, the Asset Trading division holds investments as below for the short to medium term together with associated instruments such as warrants:
Alecto Minerals PLC
| 39,375,000 ordinary shares |
Bushveld Minerals Ltd
| 4,964,442 ordinary shares |
Bushveld Minerals Ltd
| 2,482,221 warrants at 2.4p, 2 year expiry |
Ferrum Crescent Ltd | 19,230,769 warrants at 0.165p per share(subject to approval at General Meeting, expiring 12 May 2018)
|
Hummingbird Resources plc
| 113,637 ordinary shares |
Jubilee Platinum PLC
| 2,728,429 ordinary shares |
MX Oil plc | 4,000,000 warrants exercisable at 1p, 3 year expiry
|
Prospex Oil & Gas plc
| 1,692,200 ordinary shares |
Regency Mines PLC
| 7,441,806 ordinary shares |
The Board is pleased to announce that the trading arm has thus far made a number of positive returns on its investments. As a result of this and the low overheads, the Company retains a strong balance sheet for the purpose of making further investments.
Business Development
The Business Development division makes investments that are intended to be held for the longer term and where the Directors can utilise their expertise in nurturing those companies and building value. To date the Company has made one such investment when it acquired 49% equity ownership of N4 Pharma Limited ("N4") and provided a loan facility of £209,000 of which £125,000 has been drawn.
N4 is currently a private company that develops new versions of existing widely used drugs to provide an improved patient experience by reformulating them using their patent protected technology platforms Cocrys® and Nuvac®. Their lead product is a novel patentable 'faster acting' version of Viagra which it is currently seeking to out-license to a large pharma co-development partner.
N4 was founded by Nigel Theobald, a successful healthcare entrepreneur with over 25 years' experience in the healthcare and biotech industry. Nigel previously worked in senior positions at Alliance Boots and is former CEO of Oxford Pharmascience Group Plc (AIM:OXP). He has a strong track record in developing intellectual property into commercially viable opportunities.
The funds provided by Onzima to N4 are to accelerate the formulation work for their novel sildenafil co-crystals (sildenafil is the generic drug name for Viagra) and undertake the initial proof of concept studies for their faster acting positioning. The erectile dysfunction market is worth over $4bn. Viagra came off patent in Europe in 2013 and is still the most widely used drug for erectile dysfunction despite it taking an hour before it starts to work. A faster acting version of Viagra will be a key new player in this attractive market. N4 also aim to expand their product portfolio and reformulate a wide range of drugs either already off patent or coming off patent soon, each of which having an equally attractive commercial opportunity.
Nigel Theobald, CEO of N4, has acquired 800,000 new ordinary shares in the fundraise by Onzima and now holds 28,509,624 ordinary shares in the Company equal to 16% of the issued share capital.
Following completion of the fundraising, Onzima will also hold approximately £300,000 in cash.
Application will be made for admission of the Subscription Shares, which will rank pari passu in all respects with the Company's existing issued ordinary shares, to trading on AIM and it is expected that admission will occur and that dealings will commence at 8.00 a.m. on 13 June 2016.
For the purposes of the Financial Conduct Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules, the Company announces that, following the issue of the Subscription Shares, the Company will have 177,904,743 ordinary shares in issue.
The Company has no ordinary shares held in treasury. The total number of voting rights in the Company will therefore be 177,904,743. This figure 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 in their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the FCA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.
For further information please contact:
Onzima Ventures PLC Tel: +44 (0) 1732 366561
Gavin Burnell, Luke Cairns
Nominated Adviser
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP Tel: +44 (0) 20 7148 7900
Sandy Jamieson, Liam Murray
Broker
Peterhouse Corporate Finance Limited Tel: +44 (0) 20 7469 0930
Guy Miller, Lucy Williams