Silence eschews underwriters in discounted share issue

Biotechnology firm Silence Therapeutics is to tap the market, offering shares at a sharp discount, as it seeks to bolster its balance sheet.

The group plans to raise up to £5.7m before expenses through the issue of 940m new shares at a halfpenny each and a £1m convertible loan note issue.

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The issue price represents a discount of around 44% to the closing price of ordinary shares on Wednesday, the day before the fund raising was announced. The issue has not been underwritten.

The firm also disclosed that it has entered into a £10m equity finance facility with Darwin Strategic, a subsidiary of Alphagen Volantis Fund, part of the fund management group Henderson Global Investors.

"Over the next two years we expect to conclude multiple value-driving events including completion of a second clinical trial of Atu027. The proceeds from this fund-raising will strengthen the balance sheet with a view to ensuring that Silence extracts the highest value from its products and RNAi technology platform," said company Chairman Jerry Randall.

RNAi stands for RNA interference, sometimes called gene silencing.

Silence Therapeutics fell 12p to 0.77p by 11:06.

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