www.asterand.com
Asterand plc is the leading global supplier of high quality, well characterized human tissue and human tissue-based research services to drug discovery scientists. Our mission is to provide human tissues and services to accelerate the identification and validation of drug targets and enhance the selection of drug candidates with an increased likelihood of clinical success.
Asterand extends sale process deadline
Human tissue specialist Asterand (LON:ATD) announced this morning that it believes it now has sufficient cash to last the company into early 2012, after its board reviewed cash flow projections and consulted creditors.
Previously, on October 24, the firm had said that it had begun a formal sale process with the intention of targeting the second half of this month to determine a potential offer for the business. Asterand’s board has now decided to extend the timeframe to allow potential bidders more time to carry out due diligence prior to considering whether to make an offer.
The revised timetable includes a period between November 28 and December 16 in which potential bidders can conduct site visits. January 5 is the deadline for submission of possible offer terms by potential bidders, while February 6 will be the deadline for an announcement of the result of the formal sales process.
At the end of August Asterand, which supplies human tissue and human tissue-based services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, said in an interim management statement that volatile trading conditions had led to a reduced outlook for the year and that further funding would be required since the company was in breach of its banking covenants.
Today, the firm issued a further interim management statement in which it said that trading conditions had improved recently and that it expects tissue revenues to be in line with last year. Meanwhile, Asterand’s BioSeek business has consolidated its trading during the second half after achieving strong growth in H1 2011.
Overall, the firm expects group revenues for 2011 to exceed those for 2010.



















