SUDA Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:SUD) (FRA:E4N) shares were as much as 69.45% higher to A$0.061 on the back of a heavily oversubscribed placement that raised $3.65 million.
The placement will support an announcement last week that SUDA has acquired an exclusive global licence to an invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cell therapy platform from Imperial College London.
This capital raising was completed at $0.038 per share, representing a premium to the closing price of shares on June 17, the last trading day before announcing the offer.
More than 51 million shares were traded today as the company's shares reached a new high of almost 11 months.
Funds to enable iNKT development
SUDA intended to raise a minimum of $3 million in the capital raising and with the strong interest from institutional investors, this has been surpassed by $654,231.
Funds will enable the initial development of the iNKT cell therapy platform, including hiring key personnel and initiating the manufacturing of critical components to produce the product.
“Pleased with demand”
SUDA managing director and CEO Dr Michael Baker said: “We have been screening assets from around the globe and we are delighted that we have acquired the exclusive, global licence to the iNKT cell therapy platform from Imperial College London.
“We are looking forward to a close relationship with Imperial College London as we continue to develop the technology for clinical trials.
“We are pleased with the demand for investment in SUDA from sophisticated and professional investors, which demonstrates a strong level of support for the acquisition.
“This capital raising strengthens our financial position and allows us to get things underway at full speed.”
Placement details
New shares issued under the placement will rank equally with existing SUDA shares.
Baker Young Limited acted as lead manager for the offer.
The new shares are being issued on June 29, under the company’s existing capacity under ASX Listing Rule 7.1 and 7.1A.
This equates to 57,698,398 under Listing Rule 7.1 and 38,465,599 under ASX Listing Rule 7.1A.