Progen, Avexa to merge 11:30, Monday, 22 December 2008
Sydney - Monday - December 22: (RWE Aust Business News) - Progen Pharmaceuticals (ASX:PGL) and Avexa (ASX:AVX) will merge. Progen will propose a $20 million buy-back option to shareholders to be completed prior to the merger. The combined entity would have over $60m at transaction closing assuming the buy-back is fully subscribed. Shareholders from both companies will vote on the proposal in the first quarter of 2009. The merger is unanimously recommended by the boards of both companies. The combined entity would be a well funded small molecule drug development company with a portfolio of oncology and infectious disease programs in various stages of development. Progen intends to buy back its shares at $1.10 each, giving shareholders the flexibility to choose how much cash and how many shares in the new entity they would prefer. Progen will issue Avexa holders one Progen share for every 12.857 shares they own. Based on Avexa's current share price of 10.5c this ratio implies a value of $1.35 per Progen share, a premium of 49.6pc to the current 90c share price. The merged entity is then assumed to be owned 56pc by Progen and 44pc by Avexa shareholders. The merged entity will be named Avexa Pharmaceuticals with headquarters in Melbourne and offices in Brisbane and in San Francisco, USA.
PGL Price at posting:
74.1¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held