Hadasit Bio Holdings Ltd. (TASE:HDST; Bulletin Board: HADSY) has announced a $2 million investment from Chinese investors. The investors will receive one quarter of the company's shares in the placement, which reflected a company value of $6 million, before the money.
Hadasit Bio is a holding company for companies founded on the basis of technology developed by the Hadassah Medical Center. The company currently has holdings in a number of companies, most of which are at various stages of clinical trials. Hadasit Bio's most prominent investments are in Cell Cure Neurosciences, which is in Phase I/IIa clinical trials for the use of stem cells in the treatment of age-related blindness; Enlivex, which is preparing for a Phase IIb or Phase III trial of its treatment for Graft Versus Host Disease (GVHD), a disease that attacks bone marrow implants, and which recently received an investment from a group led by Shai Novick; D-Pharm, which is developing drugs for treatment of stroke; and KAHR Medical, whose product treats autoimmune diseases and cancer, and which has obtained an investment from Sanofi. KAHR is also at the pre-clinical trials phase.
Hadasit Bio's market cap as of today was NIS 15 million ($4 million), meaning that the new investment is being made at a 50% premium on the market price (before today's substantial rise in the share price). In return for the investment, Hadasit Bio promised that it would do its best to make sure that the investor received the right to produce and market in China the products of Hadasit Bio's portfolio companies, and to establish a company development center in China, if an additional investment is made. Since all the companies in the group are legally independent, and some have additional investors, Hadasit does not have control over the grant of licenses on the portfolio companies' products, and can only make its best efforts, as the agreement specifies.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 28, 2015
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