Open Orphan raising at least £5m for merger with hVIVO

Pharmaceutical services company Open Orphan announced a fundraising to raise a minimum of £5m before expenses via a conditional placing of new ordinary shares on Friday, at a price of 6.1p each, to institutional and other investors.

The AIM-traded firm said the fundraising also included a subscription of new ordinary shares at the issue price to institutional and other investors as well.

It said the placing was being conducted via an accelerated bookbuild, which began immediately after its announcement.

Open Orphan confirmed it had conditionally raised around £1m before expenses through the subscription of 15,631,143 subscription shares.

The proceeds of the fundraising would be used to fund its growth and synergies programme, following the completion of the merger of Open Orphan and hVIVO.

Its board noted that the issue price represented a premium of about 0.8% to the closing mid-market price on 30 January.

“The fundraising of £5 million will be used to fund the growth and synergies programme of the business and provide balance sheet strength to convert a strong pipeline of proposals with hVIVO,” said executive chairman Cathal Friel.

“We are excited by the potential of the combined businesses, which we believe is positioned for profitability, and can deliver substantial returns for our shareholders.”

At 1536 GMT, shares in Open Orphan were down 0.41% at 6.08p.