9 September 2024
ImmuPharma
PLC
("ImmuPharma" or the "Company")
Extension of Warrants in
Incanthera to 31 March 2025
ImmuPharma PLC (LSE: IMM), the
specialist drug discovery and development company, is pleased to
announce that the Company has agreed with Incanthera plc
("Incanthera") that Warrants issued to the Company on 26 February
2020, in conjunction with Incanthera's IPO onto the Aquis Exchange,
are extended by a further period to 31 March 2025.
Key
highlights:
· The
Company entered into a Warrant Instrument ("Warrant Instrument") with Incanthera
on 26 February 2020, whereby Incanthera created and issued Warrants
to ImmuPharma to subscribe in cash at 9.5p per share, for 7,272,740
Ordinary Shares, valid until 6 September 2023. On 18 August 2023
Incanthera agreed with the Company to extend the Warrant Instrument
by 12 months to 6 September 2024.
·
Incanthera has now agreed with the Company to extend the Warrant
Instrument to 31 March 2025.
· A cash
consideration of £75,000 ("Consideration") has been paid by
ImmuPharma to obtain the extension.
· Other
than the change in the expiry period, all other provisions in the
Warrant Instrument remain the same.
ImmuPharma currently owns no shares
in Incanthera, having sold its previous holding of c9.9 million
shares, as notified on 3 June 2024, at a price of 15p, realising
proceeds of c.£1.5 million for the Company.
Tim McCarthy, ImmuPharma's Chairman
& CEO, is also the Chairman of Incanthera and has a holding of
3,931,646 shares in Incanthera (3.36% of Incanthera's issued share
capital).
Warrant Extension Rationale
ImmuPharma's rationale for agreeing
to pay the Consideration to secure the extension of the Warrant
Instrument is based on the following fundamental
criteria:
· As at
close of business on 6 September 2024, Incanthera's mid-market
share price was 28.5p, which demonstrates a current nominal "in the
money" value of the warrants of 19p per share, equivalent to £1.38
million.
·
ImmuPharma's Board believes that the Incanthera investment case is
robust and that there is potential for a further accretive share
price, based on key milestones being met over the next period to 31
March 2025.
· As
reported in ImmuPharma's Interim results (which were also announced
today), the Company has continued to manage its operations in a
cost efficient manner and with a cash balance of £1.1m of cash as
at 30 June 2024, the Company has a robust cash runway moving
forward. However, the Board did not feel it would be prudent to
have deployed c£691k of the Company's funds in exercising the
Warrant in the period ended 6 September 2024 (the end of the
previous expiry period). This prudent control of cash reserves
needs to continue over the next period.
· As also
reported in the Interims, ImmuPharma continues to concentrate on
securing further commercial and partnering deals over the next
period, that could potentially provide a significant cash injection
into the Company, to allow the Warrants to be exercised in full,
and allow the Company to restore a c. 6% shareholding in
Incanthera.
Related Party
Transaction
The extension of the Warrants has
been treated as a related party transaction under the AIM Rules for
Companies. Mr. McCarthy has not been involved in the Board decision
in respect to agreeing to the terms of the extension.
The Directors (excluding Mr.
McCarthy), having consulted with SPARK, the Company's nominated
adviser, consider that the terms of the Warrant extension are fair
and reasonable insofar as the Company's shareholders are
concerned.
Commenting on this announcement, Tim
Franklin, COO of ImmuPharma said: "After
careful consideration, we believe an investment of £75k, to secure
extended optionality associated with the warrant extension, not
only retains the nominal "in the money" value in the Warrants, but
also allows us to benefit potentially from any further accretion in
Incanthera's share price as they meet key milestones over the next
period."
This announcement contains inside information as stipulated
under the UK version of the Market Abuse Regulation no 596/2014
which is part of English law by virtue of the European (withdrawal)
Act 2018, as amended. On publication of this announcement via
a regulatory information service, this information is considered to
be in the public domain.
For further information please
contact:
ImmuPharma PLC (www.immupharma.com)
Tim Franklin, Chief Operating
Officer
Lisa Baderoon, Head of Investor
Relations
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+44 (0) 207 206 2650
+ 44 (0) 7721 413496
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SPARK Advisory Partners Limited (NOMAD)
Neil Baldwin
Stanford Capital Partners (Joint Broker)
Patrick Claridge, Bob
Pountney
SI
Capital (Joint Broker)
Nick Emerson
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+44 (0) 203
368
3550
+44 (0) 203 650 3650
+44 (0) 1483 413500
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Notes to Editors
About ImmuPharma PLC
ImmuPharma PLC (LSE AIM: IMM) is a
specialty biopharmaceutical company that discovers and develops
peptide-based therapeutics. The Company's portfolio includes novel
peptide therapeutics for autoimmune diseases and anti-infectives.
The lead program, P140 (Lupuzorâ„¢), is a first-in class autophagy
immunomodulator for the treatment of Lupus and preclinical analysis
suggest therapeutic activity for many other autoimmune diseases
that share the same autophagy mechanism of action.
For additional information about
ImmuPharma please visit www.immupharma.co.uk
ImmuPharma's LEI (Legal Entity
Identifier) code : 213800VZKGHXC7VUS895.