Insurance company The Phoenix Holdings Ltd. (TASE: PHOE1;PHOE5) has invested NIS 10 million in Bio-Light Israeli Life Sciences Investments Ltd. (TASE:BOLT; Bulletin Board: BLGTY), becoming the first institutional party at interest in the drug development company. Bio-Light allotted 46,512,000 shares to Phoenix at NIS 0.215 per share, for a 9.84% stake in the company. It also allotted 46,512,000 of warrants, exercisable through the end of 2016 for the same number shares at a strike price of NIS 0.37 per share. If Phoenix exercises the warrants in full, Bio-Light will receive an additional gross NIS 17.2 million.
Bio-Light's share price rose 4.1% in morning trading on the TASE following the announcement, to NIS 0.20, giving a market cap of NIS 83 million.
"We are very pleased by the closing of the investment and the vote of confidence by Phoenix, which is one of Israel's leading financial institutions," said Bio-Light CEO Suzana Nahum-Zilberberg. "The investment by an investment institution in Bio-Light is another vote of confidence in the company's business potential and business model."
Earlier in March, Bio-Light raised NIS 19 million in a placement of shares and warrants. If the warrants are exercised in full, the company will receive an additional gross NIS 26.8 million. Bio-Light chairman Israel Makov, India's Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (BSE: 524715) managing director Dilip Shanghvi, and Dan Oren, invested NIS 10.5 million altogether in the equity round, maintaining their stakes in the company.
Bio-Light also announced in early March that subsidiary IOPtima Ltd., a developer of minimally invasive ophthalmic surgery devices, obtained China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) approval to market and sell the IOPtiMate system in China, the world's largest glaucoma market.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 18, 2014
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