2nd Apr 2015 13:53
LONDON (Alliance News) - Silence Therapeutics PLC Thursday said it wants to raise GBP40 million by selling new shares so it can further develop its RNA platform.
The RNA therapeutics company said that 11.4 million new shares have been placed with new and existing investors at 240 pence per share, a 14.3% discount to its closing middle market price of 280 pence on Wednesday, raising GBP27.3 million. In addition, Canaccord Genuity and Peel Hunt, the groups responsible for the fundraising, have the option to find subscribers for 5.3 million new shares at the same price.
The first part of the placing depends on whether Canaccord and Peel Hunt can find investors to take up the 5.3 million portion of the fundraising in full.
Silence Therapeutics said it is "confident" that the 5.3 million new shares will be subscribed for in full.
"2014 was a year of significant technological progress for Silence Therapeutics. As well as the ability to switch genes off using our modified siRNA and delivery systems, we added the ability to switch genes on by using the same delivery systems with a messenger RNA. After the period end, we announced highly encouraging data in our phase 2a pancreas cancer trial. The successes of the company have since led to this material capital raise and we are now in a unique position to capitalise on the tidal wave of genetic medicine," Ali Mortazavi, chief executive, said in a statement.
The fundraising came as Silence Therapeutics reported that its pretax loss widened to GBP12.0 million in 2014, compared with GBP9.0 million in 2013, mainly as spending on research and development increased to GBP8.9 million from GBP5.6 million.
The company said the increase in research and development costs was due to expenditure on its clinical and pre-clinical programmes.
Silence Therapeutics shares were down 11.4% at 248.00 pence on Thursday shortly after the announcements.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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