Last checked at 10 Sep 2012 07:00
(AIM: SAR) | 10 September 2012 |
SAREUM HOLDINGS PLC
("Sareum" or "the Company")
Financing
Sareum, the specialist cancer drug discovery business, is pleased to announce that it has entered into a £4 million Standby Equity Distribution Agreement ("SEDA") with YA Global Master SPV Ltd, an investment fund managed by Yorkville Advisors LLC ("Yorkville").
The SEDA is intended to provide a flexible source of future funding to the Company to support its on-going drug research activities as well as reassurance to Sareum's potential commercial partners that it has access to other funds, in addition to any anticipated licence deal income.
Subject to its terms, the £4 million SEDA facility can be used entirely at the discretion of the Company. Under the terms of the SEDA, Sareum may draw down funds over a period of up to three years in exchange for the issue of new Ordinary Shares in the Company. The Ordinary Shares will be issued at a 5% discount to the lowest volume weighted average price during the pricing period (a period of 20, 15, 10 or 5 trading days as determined under the SEDA) following a draw down request. The Company may also set a minimum price for each draw down, which may reduce the size of the permitted draw down. The maximum advance that may be requested is 400% of the average daily trading volume of Ordinary Shares multiplied by the volume weighted average price of such shares for each of the 20 trading days following the draw down request, and with an overall advance limit of £500,000 per draw down. The facility may only be drawn upon once every 10 trading days. Yorkville is not obliged to allow drawdowns to the extent they would result in Yorkville holding in excess of notifiable amounts specified under UK regulation (including, the Takeover Code).
On 19 July 2012, the Company issued a Trading Update stating that it expects to conclude a commercial deal with at least one of its research programmes by the end of the calendar year, and the Company stands by that statement.
Sareum's CEO, Dr Tim Mitchell, commented:
"Although not an immediate requirement, the availability of financing provided by Yorkville's SEDA complements the flexibility of our outsourced research model and demonstrates to potential commercial partners that we have the means to continue to add value to our research programmes. I firmly believe it is a prudent measure which will benefit the Company's development programmes."
For further information: | |
Sareum Holdings plc | |
Tim Mitchell | 01223 497 700 |
Merchant Securities Limited (Nomad) | |
Simon Clements | 020 7628 2200 |
Hybridan LLP (Broker and broker to the transaction) | |
Claire Noyce, Deepak Reddy | 020 7947 4350 |
Media enquiries: | |
The Communications Portfolio Ltd | |
Philip Ranger / Caolan Mahon | 020 7536 2028/2029 |
philip.ranger@communications-portfolio.co.uk | |
Notes for editors:
About Sareum Holdings plc
Sareum is a drug discovery company, headquartered in Cambridge UK, that produces targeted small molecule therapeutics, focusing on cancer and auto-immune disease. Sareum aims to successfully deliver drug candidates for licensing to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies at the pre-clinical or early clinical trials stage.
Sareum's Chk1 kinase cancer research programme is a joint research collaboration with The Institute of Cancer Research and Cancer Research Technology Limited. The development candidate resulting from the collaboration increases the effectiveness of current cancer therapeutics in several in-vivo cancer models.
SKIL® (Sareum Kinase Inhibitor Library) is Sareum's drug discovery technology platform that has so far produced the Company's Aurora+FLT3, Aurora+ALK VEGFR-3, FLT3 & TYK2 kinase cancer and auto-immune disease research programmes. SKIL can also generate drug research programmes against other kinase targets.
Sareum Holdings plc is listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange and trades under the symbol SAR. For further information, please visit www.sareum.co.uk
About Yorkville Advisors
Yorkville Advisors is a US-based alternative investment manager.
For the last 10 years, Mark Angelo, President of Yorkville, has been specializing in providing flexible, innovative debt and equity investments and financing in publicly listed companies in a variety of sectors including mining, oil & gas, healthcare, real estate, manufacturing & shipping and technology.
Yorkville tailors its transactions on an investment by investment basis, which may include debt and equity investments, bridge financings, asset-backed or SEDA-backed notes, equity facilities and, straight equity participation.
Yorkville has offices in Jersey City, New Jersey; Palm Beach Gardens, Florida; Denver, Colorado and London.
www.yorkvilleadvisors.com