Modex to launch on SWX New Market
The Lausanne-based biotechnology group, Modex Therapeutics, is planning to launch its shares on the Swiss stock exchange's (SWX) New Market on June 23.
A maximum of 495,000 registered shares will be offered at a price of between SFr148 and SFr168 per share. The initial block of shares on offer represents 33.8 per cent of the company’s capital.
Modex said it would use the proceeds from the sale to finance research, acquisition of technologies and growth.
Modex, is known for its “T3R” technology – tissue repair, replacement and generation. Its focus is later stage development rather than primary research and thus sees itself as an acquirer of technology, keeping its own research costs relatively low.
The move by Modex to launch on the stock market comes despite the decision of many United States-based biotechnology groups to pull their floatation plans.
“In America, you cannot do any IPOs for biotechs right now. But in Europe, especially Switzerland, you find investors who are longer-term oriented and who like to invest in these kind of companies,” said Daniel Richner, a co-manager of the Swiss private bank Lombard Odier & Cie’s Immunology Fund. The fund is one of the first investors in four year-old Modex.
“We are coming into a sector which is already very well understood in Switzerland, not only from the device side, but also from the pharma side, and the investor side,” said Modex’s chief executive officer, Jacques Essinger.
Speaking at a media briefing Essinger said, “Skin is our business and we want that to grow further. We want to continue to extend our pipeline.”
The SWX New Market is the latest segment to be introduced by the Swiss Stock Exchange, and is especially designed for rapidly growing companies from both Switzerland and abroad.
It provides these firms with a simplified means of entry to the Swiss capital markets and offers investors the opportunity to benefit from the above-average growth expected of such companies.
The SWX New Market is based on the electronic trading platform and internationally recognised supplementary regulations of the SWX Swiss Exchange. It offers high-growth companies the opportunity to acquire capital that will help finance their dynamic development.
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