AIM Risers & Small Cap News Roundup
Below is a roundup up of today's small cap news highlights & AIM risers.
Cambridge Science Company Acquired By US Private Equity Firm
today announced it has agreed to be acquired for £34.5m.
Abzena is life sciences group with headquarters in Cambridge that provides proprietary technologies & complementary solutions to organisations involved in the development of biopharmaceutical products.
And the AIM-listed company has now been acquired by US heath-focused private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe (WCAS).
Commenting on the acquisition, WCAS Operating Partner Jonathan Goldman said: "Abzena is a highly respected company with a world class team of employees that offers differentiated and integrated solutions to customers. WCAS is excited to partner with the Abzena team to grow the company and maintain the standards of excellence and quality expected by customers and regulators.”
Tiziana Submits FDA Application For MS Treatment
rose 15% today after the UK biotechnology company announced it has submitted an application to the FDA to start clinical trials for its neurodegenerative diseases treatment.
The company focuses on the discovery and development of novel molecules to treat human disease in oncology and immunology, and has now submitted an IND to initiate phase 1 clinical trials "with the objective of demonstrating proof of concept in a potentially revolutionary approach for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as progressive multiple sclerosis (MS)".
Chairman and founder Gabriele Cerrone said: "The ability to directly target the central nervous system has been, until now, a formidable and long-standing obstacle in the development of treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. Intranasal delivery of therapeutic anti-CD3 mAbs represents a potential game changer to overcome the barrier of the blood brain obstacle and has the potential for the development of an entirely new class of therapies for treatment of a wide range of human diseases."
BigDish Buys Philippines Travel & Restaurant Discovery Platform
Restaurant reservation platform has just announced the acquisition of Philippines restaurant & travel discovery business Looloo.
Looloo is a search-focused mobile & web platform that offers travel, hotel & restaurant reviews and recommendations for the Philippines.
The platform gets up to 500,000 unique visits every month, has over 28,000 restaurant reviews, and its app has been installed 200,000 times.
BigDish said it acquired the platform to grow its existing user base in the Philippines.
Health & Community Care Company Sees Profit Rise
shares were up 14% today after announcing its preliminary results, where gross profit increased 31% from £3.63m to £4.74m.
Although revenues for the health and community care property partner fell slightly from £18.56m to £18.47m, pretax profit increased from £67,000 to £1.75m.
This was boosted by the signing of a joint venture with Morgan Sindall Investments and last year's acquisition of F1 Modular Limited.
Ashley House Chairman Christopher Lyons said: “The outlook for the Group has improved, starting with the financial performance for the year and further enhanced by schemes commencing on site, a significant reduction in the Group's net debt position and a focus on building a broader pipeline of opportunities which are not so contingent upon Government policy and funding.”
Summit Therpeutics Awarded Extra $12m
- Shares in rose by 11% after the company announced it has been awarded an additional $12m under its contract with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).
The funds will support the Phase 3 development programme for ridinilazole, the company’s new precision mechanism antibiotic for the treatment of C. difficile infection.
Summit Therapeutics CEO Glyn Edwards said: "BARDA's continued support underlines the promise ridinilazole has as a potential front-line CDI treatment option which can treat the initial infection and address the key clinical issue of recurrent disease.
“We look forward to the planned initiation of the Phase 3 clinical trials which remains on track for the first quarter of 2019."
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