Melbourne, Australia; Starpharma Holdings Limited (ASX: SPL; OTCQX:SPHRY) is pleased to announce it has raised A$18 million via a placement to international and domestic institutional, sophisticated and professional investors (“Placement”). Eligible shareholders will have the opportunity to also participate at the same price, through a Share Purchase Plan (SPP), which will raise up to a further A$5 million.

The Placement was significantly oversubscribed seeing strong demand from existing institutional shareholders as well as a number of new international and domestic funds. The placement was conducted at $0.65 per share, representing an 8.5% discount to the last closing price prior to SPL shares going into a Trading Halt (A$0.71 per share).

The funds raised will be used to support the completion of the Phase 3 trials of VivaGel^® for prevention of recurrent bacterial vaginosis (BV), regulatory and commercialisation activities of VivaGel^® for Symptomatic Relief of BV, to accelerate the DEP^TM docetaxel chemotherapeutic clinical trials from Phase 1 into Phase 2, and to advance other development programs including the agrochemical program.

Starpharma Chief Executive Officer Dr Jackie Fairley said: “We are pleased to have received such strong interest from our existing institutional shareholders and we thank them for their continuing support. We also have welcomed several new local and international funds as shareholders in Starpharma for the first time. The SPP is planned to ensure that our existing retail investors are also able to participate in this capital raising and add to their holdings, at the same price, without brokerage costs. The funds raised will allow us to confidently advance our VivaGel^®, drug delivery and agrochemical programs; and strengthen the balance sheet for the various commercialisation discussions already underway. Meanwhile, we look forward to the anticipated Australian launch of the VivaGel^® condom with Ansell in the near future, as well as further progress in our DEP™ docetaxel trial where promising early data has already been seen.”

Bell Potter Securities Limited acted as Sole Lead Manager to the Placement.

Share Purchase Plan

The SPP will offer all eligible shareholders the opportunity to subscribe up to a maximum of $15,000 of shares at the same Placement price of $0.65 per share. The amount to be raised under the SPP will be capped at $5 million.

The record date for participation in the SPP is 7:00pm (Melbourne time) on 19 September 2014, and the opening date of the SPP will be Monday 29 September 2014. Full details will be sent to investors in the coming days.

Use of funds

The combined $23 million being raised under the Placement and the SPP will significantly strengthen Starpharma’s cash balance, which at 30 June was $24 million. This will allow the company to fund advancement across all areas of the business including:

• Completion of Phase 3 trials of VivaGel^® prevention of recurrence of BV
• Commercialisation of VivaGel^®  for Symptomatic Relief of BV (Regulatory Submissions, Licence/s)
• Accelerating DEP™ docetaxel through completion of Phase 1 and into Phase 2
• Completion of pre-clinical development for another DEP™ candidate (eg. DEP™ oxaliplatin)
• Commercialisation of Agrochemical products
• Provide working capital and strengthen balance sheet to support commercial negotiations underway for various products.

Download ASX Announcement: Starpharma completes A$18 million placement - SPP to follow (pdf file, 98kb)