Looks pretty good either way.Progen, Avexa to merge11:30,...

Looks pretty good either way.

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.