Biofusion raises £8.2m on successful IPO

28th January 2005

Biofusion plc (“Biofusion” or the “Company”) today announces it has published its Admission Document relating to an £8.2m fundraising (the “Placing”) and to the admission of all of the Company’s ordinary shares to trading on AIM (“Admission”), which is expected to take place on Wednesday 2 February 2005. The new ordinary shares are being placed with institutional investors at 150p per share, raising approximately £8.2m and giving the Company a market capitalisation of approximately £28.2m immediately following Admission.

Biofusion was established in 2002 to commercialise university-generated intellectual property (“IP”) and has signed a ten year exclusive arrangement with the University of Sheffield for the commercialisation of IP owned by the University in the area of medical life sciences.

Placing and AIM Admission

The Placing comprises a placing with institutional investors of 5,486,664 new ordinary shares at 150p raising approximately £8.2m before expenses.
A total of 18,819,984 ordinary shares are expected to be in issue immediately following the Placing, giving the Company a market capitalisation at the Placing price of approximately £28.2m immediately following Admission.
It is expected that the Company’s ordinary shares will be admitted to trading on AIM on Wednesday 2 February 2005 under the ticker symbol “BFN”.
Code Securities Limited is nominated adviser and broker to Biofusion.

Commenting on today’s announcement, Doug Liversidge, the Chairman of Biofusion said:
”We are delighted to have successfully completed our IPO. We are already working closely with the University of Sheffield to generate value from its IP in the medical life science sectors and the spin-off companies that have already been created. The capital we have now raised will be used to finance the development of these companies and to establish and develop new portfolio companies. We are confident this will allow us to generate considerable value for shareholders and we look forward to our future as a listed company.”

Professor Bob Boucher, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield, said:
“Biofusion’s successful IPO marks an important day for the University of Sheffield. The Biofusion model has huge potential for commercialisation of university-based research, and it fits well with current Government and university thinking on fostering innovation from within the academic community.”

Contacts:

Biofusion
Doug Liversidge		+44 (0) 7798 892918
David Baynes		+44 (0) 7976 351896
Peter Grant		+44 (0) 7768 255440
Citigate Dewe Rogerson
Chris Gardner/David Dible		+44 (0) 20 7638 9571
Code Securities Limited
Phil Walker		+44 (0) 20 7024 2003
University of Sheffield
Jon Pyle		+44 (0)114 222 1038

No offer or invitation to purchase or subscribe for shares is being made at this time. Any such offer or invitation will be made solely in or by reference to the Admission Document which is expected to be published on or around the date of this announcement and any acquisition of shares in the Company should be made only on the basis of the information contained in the Admission Document.

This press release, for which the directors of Biofusion plc are solely responsible, has been approved by Code Securities Limited solely for the purpose of section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.

Code Securities Limited, which is authorised and regulated in the United Kingdom by the Financial Services Authority, is acting exclusively for the Company as nominated adviser and broker and for no-one else in relation to the Placing and Admission. Code Securities Limited will not regard any other person (whether or not in receipt of this press release) as its client in relation to the Placing and Admission and will not be responsible to anyone other than the Company for providing the protections afforded to clients of Code Securities Limited or for providing any advice in relation to the Placing and Admission.

Notes to Editors

About Biofusion
Biofusion was established in 2002 to commercialise university-generated IP. The Company has agreed a ten-year exclusive arrangement with the University of Sheffield for the commercialisation of IP owned by the University in the area of medical life sciences. The agreement also gives Biofusion shareholdings in an existing portfolio of eight spin out companies and an economic interest in a ninth. A number of these companies, which are developing new medical solutions in a number of exciting areas, have recently raised or are in the process of raising funds and at least one is expected to be ready for exit within the next 12 to 24 months.

The University of Sheffield is a world class life sciences research centre, spending £30m in 2002/3 on research in medical life sciences. This spending level is expected to grow year on year giving an estimated £0.5bn of research funding over the next ten years. The University, which celebrates its centenary this year, can count five Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and researchers, and data from the latest UK Government’s Research Assessment Exercise 2001 (“RAE 2001”) showed it ranked fifth in the UK for the quality of its life sciences research.

The Management team of Biofusion includes:

Doug Liversidge, Chairman, who has extensive private and public company experience as well as having senior positions in the University of Sheffield, where he acts as its senior industrial advisor and Chairman of Sheffield University Enterprises Limited (“SUEL”).
David Baynes, CEO, who was previously Finance Director of Codemasters, a privately owned software company, where he was responsible for all aspects of the company's finances and corporate finance activity. Prior to that, David was a co-founder of Toad plc and took the company to AIM and a full listing on the London Stock Exchange. David was also at Celsis plc, and was responsible for all elements of the company’s finance from inception to eventual flotation in 1993.
Peter Grant, Operations Director, who was previously co-founder and Director of Business Development and Technology at Celsis plc, which he helped achieve a full listing on the London Stock Exchange in 1993. Previously Peter was Head of Research and Development at Enzymatix and Senior Research Scientist at Genzyme.

Page Top