Kazia Therapeutics Ltd (ASX:KZA, NASDAQ:KZIA) has confirmed a two-tranche capital raising initiative to raise $4.5 million through placements to professional and sophisticated investors.
In addition, the company will offer eligible shareholders the opportunity to acquire up to $30,000 of new shares through a share purchase plan (SPP).
Notably, the proceeds from the placement and SPP will be used to drive the company’s clinical program toward several critical inflection points, including the final data read out on the paxalisib GBM AGILE study.
"Critical year for Kazia"
Kazia chairman Ian Ross said: “Given the challenging global market conditions for biotech and associated share price impacts, the board decided to undertake a modest capital raise, with participation from existing shareholders only, to minimise dilution.
“We are grateful to have the support of our major shareholders through the placement, and welcome participation from all eligible shareholders in the coming share purchase plan.
“The proceeds of this transaction will position the company to drive towards important catalysts during CY2023.
“It will be a critical year for Kazia, with data read-outs expected across the full breadth of our clinical trial programs, including final data from the GBM AGILE pivotal study of paxalisib in glioblastoma.”
Placement summary
The placement to professional and sophisticated investors consists of an:
- $2,792,572 unconditional placement of 25,387,018 new shares, representing approximately 16% of the total shares of Kazia on issue prior to the issue of the new shares; and
- $1,707,428 placement of 15,522,075 new shares, conditional on Kazia shareholder approval for the purposes
The price of both the unconditional placement and the conditional placement will be $0.11 which represents a 13% premium to the 15-day volume-weighted average price (VWAP) on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) up to and including January 11, 2023, of $0.097.
An extraordinary general meeting (EGM) is expected to be held on February 24, 2023, to seek approval for the issuance of new shares under the conditional placement.
Kazia will provide eligible shareholders with a notice of meeting and explanatory materials over the coming days.
Indicative placement timetable.
SPP summary
The non-underwritten SPP will allow eligible shareholders to purchase shares in Kazia up to a maximum of $30,000, free of any brokerage, commission and transaction costs.
The issue price of the shares will be $0.11, on the same terms as the placement price.
This SPP will not be capped, and a target has not been set.
It will be open to shareholders on the register on January 13, 2023, and who are eligible to participate under the terms of the SPP.
Details of the offer will be provided to eligible shareholders in the coming days.
Indicative SPP timetable.