News blog

Cyprotex

• BY: Andrew Hore |
• POSTED: 11/08/2013 |

Harwood Capital is underwriting a £7m placing and open offer by Cyprotex that will enable the toxicity services provider to expand more rapidly. 

The full details of the open offer have not been finalised but it is loan notes rather than shares that are being issued. This is because Harwood owns 27.3% of Cyprotex through Oryx International and does not want to go over 30% and be forced to bid. The plan is to treble revenues.

Cyprotex provides services to pharma companies that enable them to choose the compounds most likely to be effective and assess their potential toxicity. The cash will help Cyprotex to increase capacity and enable it to make acquisitions to expand its range of services.

Cyprotex had a strong first half in 2013. Revenues were 22% higher at £4.55m and a loss of £222,000 was turned into a profit of £272,000. The main growth was in the UK business. The second half is always stronger and this will be the same this year., although not by as much as last year. Net debt was just over £400,000 at the end of June 2013 but this is mainly finance leases on equipment.

At 6.63p a share, Cyprotex is valued at £14.9m. The shares are trading on 22 times forecast earnings for 2013, falling to 13 for 2014.

Download the latest AIM Journal from http://www.hubinvest.com/AIMPDFJuly2013_46.pdf