Beringea’s Abzena raises funds on AIM

Beringea portfolio company Abzena has raised funds on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange. Beringea first invested in Polytherics through ProVen Growth and Income and ProVen Health in September 2011.

PRESS RELEASE

Beringea, the growth capital investor that manages the ProVen Venture Capital Trusts, has announced that Abzena Plc, previously known as Polytherics, has raised £20 million, by way of a placing of 25 million new ordinary shares at 80 pence per share (the “Placing Price”) in conjunction with the admission of its ordinary shares to trading on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange. 3.4 million existing ordinary shares are also being sold at the Placing Price. Beringea first invested in Polytherics through ProVen Growth and Income (PGI) and ProVen Health (now merged with PGI) in September 2011.
The Company’s entire issued share capital of 97.4 million ordinary shares (as enlarged by the placing of new ordinary shares) was admitted to trading on AIM on 10 July 2014 under the ticker ABZA . At the Placing Price, the market capitalisation of Abzena on Admission was approximately £80 million and the shares held by PGI were worth £3.07m, a multiple of 2.4x the cost of the investment.

Dr. Stephane Mery, partner at Beringea commented: “This placing will help to secure the company’s position as a leader in the biopharmaceutical industry. We are delighted to have been involved in the development and growth of Abzena.”
John Burt, CEO of Abzena said: “The proceeds from the Placing and our admission to AIM mark important milestones in Abzena’s development and provides a platform for us to grow our existing business and expand our offering as we enable our customers and partners to translate research into better biopharmaceutical products that benefit patients.

“Abzena combines a growing, high-margin service business with the potential for substantial longer term revenue streams from licences to our proprietary technologies.”
Cenkos Securities plc acted as nominated adviser and broker to the Company.
Notes for editors:
About Beringea
Beringea is an international growth capital firm with offices in London and Michigan, which invests in high growth companies. Beringea’s London office manages a number of funds, including the ProVen VCTs. Beringea is a generalist investor with sector expertise in Media, Healthcare and Retail. Beringea’s previous investments have included Fjordnet, Espresso Education, Saffron Digital and Mergermarket. Beringea LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

About the ProVen VCTs
The ProVen VCTs (ProVen VCT, ProVen Growth & Income VCT and ProVen Planned Exit VCT) are funds raised under the government’s Venture Capital Trust scheme for supporting UK SMEs with equity investment. The original Ordinary share issues of ProVen VCT and ProVen Growth & Income VCT have generated higher Total Returns to investors than any other VCT share issues in their respective launch years, according to www.taxefficientreview.com.
For more information, please contact:
Carol Clifford (cclifford@beringea.co.uk)
Beringea LLP
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7845 7820

John Burt (Chief Executive Officer; john.burt@abzena.com)
Julian Smith (Chief Financial Officer; julian.smith@abzena.com)
Abzena plc
Tel: +44 (0)1223 903351
Christopher Golden and Bobbie Hilliam
Cenkos Securities plc
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7397 8900

Mark Swallow, Sita Shah or Chris Gardner, Citigate Dewe Rogerson
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7638 9571
Email: abzena@citigatedr.co.uk