BioTime Conducts Sale of Shares in OncoCyte Corporation
4:15 PM ET 7/2/19 | BusinessWire
ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 02, 2019--
BioTime, Inc. (NYSE American and TASE: BTX), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing cellular therapies for unmet medical needs, announced the pricing of the sale of 2,250,000 shares of common stock of OncoCyte Corporation at a price to buyers of $2.00 per share, for gross proceeds totaling $4,500,000, before payment of customary sales commissions and offering expenses. The sale is expected to close on July 5, 2019, subject to customary closing conditions. Following the completion of the sale, BioTime will own approximately 23.9% or 12.4 million shares of OncoCyte's outstanding common stock. Based on the closing price of OncoCyte's common stock on July 2, 2019, the value of BioTime's remaining OncoCyte shares following the closing is approximately $24.6 million.
"As we first outlined last year, we are simplifying our corporate structure and focusing our priorities in order to build BioTime into a premier cell therapy company. To support our development programs, we have several funding mechanisms available via our investments in OncoCyte and AgeX Therapeutics, Inc., as well as a $21.6 million promissory note due to us from Juvenescence Ltd. As outlined previously, we believe it is beneficial for our shareholders if we can raise capital without issuing BioTime shares," stated Brian M. Culley, Chief Executive Officer of BioTime. "At this time, to provide a longer financial runway for our three clinical-stage programs, we have entered into an agreement to convert approximately 15% of our investment in OncoCyte into cash to support our operations. After this sale, we expect to continue to be OncoCyte's largest shareholder. We have no plans to conduct additional sales of OncoCyte in the near-term and entered into a 45-day lockup, but we otherwise may at any time elect to leverage some of our remaining equity investments or the $21.6 million promissory note due to us next August to further support our business. We believe the technologies that OncoCyte and AgeX are developing are highly promising, but we also must ensure we have adequate funding to advance our internal programs. In parallel, we also will continue to assess other funding and strategic alliance opportunities which may be available through our existing or future potential partners. |
