Ark Therapeutics primes market for likely financing update

Viral product-focused manufacturing services company Ark Therapeutics expects to update the market soon regarding possible financing, an announcement issued by the company on Monday disclosed.

The group announced that it was actively pursuing a number of options regarding the possible financing of the company and its business, including through an issue of equity on a non pre-emptive basis.

The company stated that there was "no guarantee" that the discussions would be successful yet also stated that it believed it would be in a position to "update the market shortly".

This follows a previous attempt by the group to gauge interest among shareholders over a potential equity fund-raising which it said had showed a level insufficient to justify continuing with the proposal.

Over the past year, the company said it had reduced its cost base, terminated all costly investment in early stage product development and re-structured its business to focus solely upon generating revenue from its viral development and manufacturing services based in Finland.

The group advised its shareholders that "in all likelihood, given the current share price and the expected level of investment being discussed, any equity financing proposal will be materially dilutive and subject to shareholder approval."

It added that the group's directors remained confident Ark has the potential to become a profitable, viral focused, contract development and manufacturing organisation.

In the meantime, and as previously announced, the company continues to explore opportunities to monetise its non-core assets, and is in discussions with a number of interested parties.

Ark Therapeutics has seven active clients and a number of further contracts in late stage negotiations.

Unaudited revenue for 2012 was up 300% to approximately £1.8m compared to 2011.

MF