Dublin, Ireland, 27 February 2006
AGI Therapeutics plc Admission to trading on AIM and IEX €42.5 Million Placing.
AGI Therapeutics plc ("AGI" or the "Company"), a specialty pharmaceuticals company focused on gastrointestinal drug products, announces that admission to trading will become effective, and dealings in its ordinary shares will commence today on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange and the IEX market of the Irish Stock Exchange (“Admission”).
In conjunction with Admission, the Company has raised gross proceeds of €42.5 million (£29.2 million) through a placing of new AGI ordinary shares with new and existing shareholders (the "Placing"), which was arranged by Davy. The Placing Shares have been priced at €1.26 (86.5p) per ordinary share, indicating a market capitalisation for the Company of approximately €85 million (£58.4 million).
Details of the Placing
- The Placing comprises a total of 33,730,159 million new ordinary shares (the "Placing Shares") raising gross proceeds of €42.5 million (£29.2 million) for the Company.
- The number of ordinary shares in issue at Admission will be 67,412,783 million.
- All existing shareholders are subject to a 12 month lock-up period following Admission and orderly market arrangements for an additional 12 month period.
- Dealings on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange and the IEX market of the Irish Stock Exchange will commence today (Bloomberg: AGI and ISE Xetra: A9I).
- Davy is acting as nominated adviser, IEX adviser and broker to AGI.
About AGI Therapeutics
AGI is a speciality pharmaceutical company which is focused on the development and commercialisation of differentiated drug products for gastrointestinal (‘‘GI’’) diseases and disorders.
The Company has a portfolio of product candidates derived from the Known Molecular Entity (‘‘KME’’) approach to drug re-profiling and development. KME is a re-profiling methodology used by the Company to identify existing therapeutic drugs which typically have been marketed for a number of years, have established safety profiles and can be developed for new clinical indications or with improved profiles in their existing clinical indications. In this way, the Company seeks to reduce the risk, time and cost of new product development as compared to the development of new chemical entities.
AGI has developed a range of product candidates to treat a variety of prevalent GI diseases and disorders, including irritable bowel syndrome, functional dyspepsia, ulcerative colitis and gastro-esophageal reflux disease. The Company is targeting areas of the GI therapeutic drug products market for its product candidates where there are currently unmet medical needs or where the effectiveness of existing drug therapies can be further improved.
The Company has six clinical stage product candidates which are either isomers or new drug delivery formulations of existing approved drugs, and which have established safety and tolerability profiles in their currently approved clinical indications. These product candidates are all in clinical development, five of which are in Phase II trials.
AGI intends to complete its ongoing clinical trials and, dependent on the results of these trials, the Company will initiate Phase III development of a lead product candidate and will also seek to enter into licensing and development agreements with pharmaceutical companies so as to enhance the global market reach for its products and achieve optimal revenue and value opportunities for the Company.
Commenting on the Admission, Dr. John Devane, Chief Executive Officer of AGI, said:
"We are very pleased to have completed our Admission to AIM and IEX. Following Admission, we intend to advance our clinical development pipeline to enhance the value of our products, with a particular objective being to take an internal lead product into Phase III development. We will also seek to establish licensing agreements with pharmaceutical companies for other products within our portfolio. We expect that the results of all of our ongoing clinical trials will be available within the next 12 months and we look forward with confidence to AGI's future as a public company."
Further Information
Further information on the Company and the securities subject to Admission are contained in an admission document dated 21 February 2006 (the “Admission Document”). Terms defined in the Admission Document have the same meaning in this announcement. Copies of the Admission Document are available to the public, free of charge, at the offices of Davy, Davy House, 49 Dawson Street, Dublin 2, Ireland and the offices of Field Fisher Waterhouse, 35 Vine Street, London, EC3N 2AA, United Kingdom from the date of this document until at least one month after Admission.
Contact Information
AGI Therapeutics
David Kelly, Chief Financial Officer
Tel: +353 1 449 3254
Financial Dynamics - UK
Sarah MacLeod
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7831 3113
Financial Dynamics - Ireland
Aisling Garvey
Tel: +353 1 663 3607