11 Aug 2021 07:01
Yourgene Health plc
("Yourgene" or the "Group" or the "Company")
Earn-out Milestone, Issue of Equity & Total Voting Rights
Manchester, UK 11 August 2021: Yourgene (AIM: YGEN), a leading international molecular diagnostic group, announces an issue of equity pursuant to the terms of the acquisition of Coastal® Genomics Inc. ("Coastal") which completed in August 2020 (the "Acquisition").
Under the terms of the Coastal acquisition, a second strategic partnership Coastal Genomics' Ranger® technology was announced on 21 June 2021 which met the criteria for a Qualifying Commercial Agreement with a Strategic Partner, triggering the second and final equity earn-out milestone arising from the Acquisition. The first equity earn-out milestone was announced in March 2021 with the resultant shares issued on 12 April 2021.
To satisfy the Acquisition terms, the achievement of this second milestone gives rise to the issuance of 4,880,971 new shares in the Company's wholly owned subsidiary, Yourgene Health Canada Investment Ltd ("YGEN-HCIL"), to the former shareholders of Coastal. These YGEN-HCIL shares are exchangeable on a one-for-one basis with the Company's ordinary shares, subject to certain lock-in provisions over the next one to five years.
In addition to the above issue of YGEN-HCIL shares, 85,124 new ordinary shares in the Company will be issued to a US-based individual, who has elected to receive his earn-out payment in this form. Application will be made to the London Stock Exchange to admit the 85,124 new ordinary to trading on AIM. Admission of the new ordinary shares is expected to occur on or around 16 August 2021. The new ordinary shares will rank pari passu with the existing ordinary shares.
Total Voting Rights
For the purpose of the Disclosure and Transparency Rules, following the issue of Company shares detailed above the enlarged issued share capital of the Company will comprise 723,780,306 ordinary shares of 0.1p each. The Company does not hold any ordinary shares in treasury. The above figure may be used by shareholders 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 Company, under the Disclosure and Transparency Rules.
In addition, as a result of the issuance of the YGEN-HCIL shares detailed above there are now a total of 19,826,660 unlisted YGEN-HCIL shares issued which are exchangeable on a one-for-one basis for the Company's shares as described above.
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of the UK Market Abuse Regulation. The Directors of the Company take responsibility for this announcement.
Yourgene Health plc Lyn Rees, Chief Executive Officer | Tel: +44 (0)161 669 8122 investors@yourgene-health.com | |||
Barry Hextall, Chief Financial Officer | ||||
Joanne Cross, Director of Marketing | ||||
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (NOMAD) | Tel: +44 (0)20 7213 0880 | |||
Liam Murray / James Caithie / Ludovico Lazzaretti |
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Singer Capital Markets (Joint Corporate Broker) | Tel: +44 (0)20 7496 3000 | |||
Aubrey Powell / Tom Salvesen / George Tzimas | ||||
Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited (Joint Corporate Broker) | Tel: +44 (0)20 7710 7600 | |||
Nicholas Moore / Matthew Blawat / Ben Maddison | ||||
Walbrook PR Ltd (Media and Investor Relations) | Tel: +44 (0)20 7933 8780 or yourgene@walbrookpr.com | |||
Paul McManus / Lianne Cawthorne | Mob: 07980 541 893 / Mob: 07584 391 303 | |||
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About Yourgene Health plc
Yourgene Health is an international molecular diagnostics group which develops and commercialises genomic services and technologies. The group works in partnership with global leaders in DNA technology to advance diagnostic science.
Yourgene primarily develops, manufactures, and commercialises simple and accurate molecular diagnostic solutions, for reproductive health, precision medicine and infectious diseases. The Group's flagship in vitro diagnostic products include non-invasive prenatal tests (NIPT) for Down's Syndrome and other genetic disorders, Cystic Fibrosis screening tests, invasive rapid aneuploidy tests and DPYD genotyping.
Yourgene has a range of innovative DNA sample preparation platforms, powered by Ranger® Technology, the Yourgene LightBench® and Yourgene QS250, ideal for cell-free DNA applications in NIPT and oncology including liquid biopsy.
Yourgene Genomic Services is a global laboratory service network equipped to be a full life-cycle partner for clinical, research and pharmaceutical organisations to support partners at the preclinical, clinical, and post-market stages to develop, manufacture, obtain regulatory approval and commercialise new products and services. In addition, Yourgene Genomic Services offers an NIPT and high throughput COVID testing service.
Yourgene Health is headquartered in Manchester, UK with facilities in Taipei, Singapore, the US and Canada, and is listed on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market under the ticker "YGEN". Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.