BARD1 Life Sciences Ltd has raised $15 million in a placement to sophisticated, institutional and professional investors to accelerate the development and commercialisation of its cancer diagnostic test development program.
The company has completed the placement with strong demand from new and existing, institutional and sophisticated investors in Australia and Hong Kong.
Proceeds will be used primarily to fund development and commercialisation of SubB2M tests for ovarian and breast cancer, and EXO-NET® products.
The company is also launching a Share Purchase Plan aimed at raising a further $2 million on the same terms as placement.
Strongly supported
BARD1 chairman Dr Geoff Cumming said: We are delighted to have successfully completed this raising to accelerate the development and commercialisation of our cancer diagnostics pipeline.
“The capital raising was strongly supported by new and existing institutional and sophisticated investors with a deep understanding of the biotechnology sector and importance of early cancer detection on patient outcomes.”
Placement details
As a part of the placement, the company issued 9,677,420 fully paid ordinary shares to institutional, sophisticated and professional investors including existing shareholders at $1.55 per share.
The placement price represents a 14.7% discount to the five-day volume-weighted average price of $1.82 per share on July 21, 2021.
Bell Potter Securities Limited acted as sole lead manager to the placement.
The company is also issuing one free quoted option exercisable at $2.32 and with an expiry of August 24, 2023, for every two shares issued under the placement.
Shares issued under the placement will be ranked equally with existing shares of the company and are expected to start trading on July 30, 2021.
Share Purchase Plan
Following completion of the placement, BARD1 will conduct an offer of new shares under a Share Purchase Plan (SPP) to existing shareholders with a registered address in Australia or New Zealand on the record date to raise a further $2 million.
The SPP will provide each eligible shareholder with an opportunity to apply for up to $30,000 worth new shares at an issue price of $1.55 per share, same as the placement.
BARD1 reserves the right to increase or decrease this amount and to scale back applications under the SPP in its absolute discretion.
As a part of the SPP, the investors for every two shares issued are also entitled to one free quoted option exercisable at $2.32 with an expiry date of August 24, 2023.
Use of funds
According to the company, funds raised from the placement and SPP will be primarily used for developing SubB2M tests for ovarian and breast cancers, commercialisation of EXO-NET products, working capital and costs associated with the offer.
BARD1 CEO Dr Leearne Hinch said: “BARD1 is developing a pipeline of cancer diagnostics for the early detection of breast, ovarian, prostate and pancreatic cancers.
“We are advancing our cancer diagnostics pipeline towards commercialisation, with a focus on our lead SubB2M programs for breast and ovarian cancers that have shown high accuracy in proof-of-concept studies.
“The funds raised will accelerate development, validation and planned commercial launch of these products as laboratory-developed tests in the US with a laboratory partner in 2023.”