Genticel and GenKyoTex announce that Genticel’s shareholders approved the resolutions implementing the strategic combination between the two companies. This transaction will result in the creation of a listed Franco-Swiss company called “Genkyotex” whose activity is principally devoted to the development of a pipeline of NOX inhibitors, a new therapeutic class in fibrosis and inflammatory pain.
The shares of Genkyotex listed on Euronext Paris and Euronext Brussels will trade with ticker “GKTX” from March 2, 2017. Elias Papatheodorou who served as CEO of Genkyotex since 2015 is the Company’s new CEO while Benedikt Timmerman, former Chairman of the Management Board, is Deputy CEO responsible for overseeing the existing partnership with Serum Institute of India Private Ltd (Serum Institute).
Benedikt Timmerman, Genticel’s founder, says: “We are particularly pleased with the resounding approval for this project given by our shareholders. I would like to thank them for their support and the trust they have continually placed in us throughout our development through to the implementation of this strategically-important transaction for the company. They are now shareholders of Genkyotex (ex-Genticel), the parent company of a leading group in a new class of first-in-class drugs that will create long-term value.”
Elias Papatheodorou, the Company’s new CEO, adds: “The substantial support given to this strategic transaction delights and compels us. It will allow us to resolutely pursue the development of our unique therapeutic approach, which is based on the selective inhibition of NOX enzymes. Following this operation, our strengthened cash position will enable us to advance quickly out the clinical development of our pipeline of NOX enzyme inhibitors that can become the first representatives of this new therapeutic class. Our lead product candidate, GKT831, a NOX1 and NOX4 inhibitor for fibrotic diseases, is expected to enter a phase II clinical trial in primary biliary cholangitis (PBC, an orphan fibrotic disease) during H1 of 2017. Our second product candidate, GKT771, a NOX1 inhibitor targeting multiple pathways in angiogenesis, pain processing and inflammation, should enter a phase I clinical study during the second half of this year.”
Terms of the successful operation
The Company’s General Meeting held today approved (i) the contribution by all the GenKyoTex SA shareholders to Genticel of the 5,262,133 ordinary shares they hold in GenKyoTex SA representing 100% of its share capital and voting rights, pursuant to the terms and conditions of the contribution agreement signed on December 22, 2016, and (ii) the issuance by the Company of 62,279,951 new shares to GenKyoTex SA’s shareholders in remuneration of the contribution of their shares. These shareholders thus received 11.8355 Genticel shares for each GenKyoTex SA share contributed. This exchange parity was agreed between Genticel and GenKyoTex SA’s shareholders on the basis of a real value of EUR 120,000,000 for GenKyoTex SA and EUR 30,000,000 for Genticel, as foreseen in the contribution agreement.
As a result of the contribution transaction, GenKyoTex SA’s former shareholders now hold 80% of the share capital and voting rights of Genkyotex (ex-Genticel).
Admission to trading on the Euronext Paris and Euronext Brussels regulated markets of the new shares issued by the Company in remuneration of the contribution in kind will become effective on March 2, 2017.
The shares listed on these markets will trade under the name Genkyotex with ticker “GKTX” from March 2, 2017, as soon as trading begins on the Euronext markets in Paris and Brussels.
(Press release)
Please login or sign up to comment.
Commenting guidelines