Business Update and Cancellation of Share Buyback (1241266)
18 October 2021 - 5:00PM
UK Regulatory
Arix Bioscience PLC (ARIX) Business Update and Cancellation of
Share Buyback 18-Oct-2021 / 07:00 GMT/BST Dissemination of a
Regulatory Announcement, transmitted by EQS Group. The issuer is
solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arix Bioscience plc
Business Update and Cancellation of Share Buyback
LONDON, 18 October 2021: Arix Bioscience plc ("Arix" or the
"Company") (LSE: ARIX), a global venture capital company focused on
investing in and building breakthrough biotech companies, today
announces a number of developments.
Over the past six months Arix has worked to position the Company
for the future which has involved a number of strategic actions.
The Board has been strengthened, most recently with the addition of
Sir Michael Bunbury as Senior Independent Director, whilst the
Investment Team has been expanded. This started with Mark Chin
re-joining Arix in July 2021. Mark had been instrumental in driving
much of the current portfolio, including VelosBio which was
acquired by Merck for USD2.75 billion generating gross proceeds to
Arix of GBP138.5 million and a 12.5x return on the original
investment. In the three months since re-joining Arix, Mark has
already led a new investment, GBP8 million into Disc Medicine,
which is developing novel therapies to treat serious and
debilitating haematological disorders.
Today, Arix is pleased to announce that David Cristina, PhD, has
also joined Arix as a secondee from Fosun International where he
was Head of Fosun's European Healthcare Investment Team. David has
15 years' experience in early stage investment and venture-building
and is an expert in the ageing research field. As part of Arix's
strategic relationship with Fosun International, David will provide
additional capacity and expertise to the Investment Team.
Meanwhile Arix's portfolio has continued to mature. In addition
to the new investment into Disc Medicine, existing portfolio
company Pyxis Oncology, which is developing next-generation
therapeutics to target difficult-to-treat cancers, listed on Nasdaq
Global Market on 8 October 2021. Portfolio company Aura
Biosciences, which is developing a novel treatment for primary
choroidal melanoma, has also filed its intention to IPO on
Nasdaq.
Arix has continued to see a strong pipeline of promising
investment opportunities and with the expanded Investment Team it
is confident that it can continue to profitably deploy the cash
generated from recent realisations.
The Board has therefore decided to cease its share buyback
programme, announced on 15 March 2021, with immediate effect. The
cancellation of the share buyback programme will enable Arix to
pursue greater value creation through investment into the most
innovative biotech companies. It demonstrates Arix's commitment to
creating and delivering value for all stakeholders and the Board's
confidence in the business. During the programme Arix has spent
GBP11.5 million and bought back 6,429,853 shares, representing 4.7%
of its issued share capital prior to starting the programme. The
average price paid was GBP1.79 per share, compared to the last
reported NAV per share of GBP2.14.
Robert Lyne, Chief Executive Officer of Arix, said: "I am
delighted to welcome David to the Investment Team. He brings a
wealth of international experience and a successful track record of
supporting exciting biotech companies. We continue to build our
team by adding new talent to deploy investment capital from the
realisations of our portfolio and I am pleased that we are seeing
numerous exciting investment opportunities in the US and Europe.
Ceasing our share buyback programme early demonstrates our
confidence in the Investment Team, our pipeline and our ability to
deploy capital profitably and to generate superior risk-adjusted
returns."
[ENDS]
Enquiries
For more information on Arix, please contact:
Arix Bioscience plc +44 (0) 20 7290 1050
ir@arixbioscience.com
Optimum Strategic Communications
Mary Clark, Manel Mateus +44 (0)20 8078 4357
optimum.arix@optimumcomms.com
About Arix Bioscience plc
Arix Bioscience plc is a global venture capital company focused
on investing in and building breakthrough biotech companies around
cutting-edge advances in life sciences.
We collaborate with exceptional entrepreneurs and provide the
capital, expertise and global networks to help accelerate their
ideas into important new treatments for patients. As a listed
company, we are able to bring this exciting growth phase of our
industry to a broader range of investors.
www.arixbioscience.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ISIN: GB00BD045071
Category Code: MSCH
TIDM: ARIX
LEI Code: 213800OVT3AHQCXNIX43
OAM Categories: 3.1. Additional regulated information required to be disclosed under the laws of a Member State
Sequence No.: 124516
EQS News ID: 1241266
End of Announcement EQS News Service
=------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Image link:
https://eqs-cockpit.com/cgi-bin/fncls.ssp?fn=show_t_gif&application_id=1241266&application_name=news
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 18, 2021 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT)
Arix Bioscience (LSE:ARIX)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
Arix Bioscience (LSE:ARIX)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024