Health & Fitness
Health and Fitness
Health and Fitness
Wed, October 14, 2009
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Pharming Group N.V.: Pharming finalizes conversion of 70% of outstanding bonds
LEIDEN, THE NETHERLANDS--(Marketwire - October 8, 2009) - Biotech company Pharming Group NV ("Pharming" or the "Company") (NYSE Euronext: PHARM) today announces that it has completed conversion of 70% of its outstanding convertible bonds. As a result, the total amount of outstanding convertible debt has now been reduced from EUR 35.8 million to EUR 10.9 million.
Following the offer on September 21, 2009 to its bondholders to convert their bonds into a combination of cash and shares, Pharming received commitments to convert 70% of the outstanding nominal amount of the bonds, which was announced on September 29, 2009. In respect of these commitments, valid applications for conversion have now been received. These applications exceed the minimum participation of 60% which was set as a condition precedent to the offer. Consequently, the transaction has now been executed and the total amount of outstanding debt from the convertible bonds reduced from EUR 35.8 million to EUR 10.9 million. This transaction amounts to 29.38 million newly issued shares and EUR 3.74 million cash paid. The cash for this transaction has been obtained from private placements with existing shareholders. With the execution of the transaction, the 3.87 million shares that were to be issued to these shareholders, conditional on the offer's success, will now be issued. As a result of the above transactions, Pharming's total number of outstanding ordinary shares will increase to 154.5 million shares.
"We initially aimed at removing 60% of our outstanding convertible debt from our balance sheet. We are very pleased that we now have exceeded our goal and removed 70% of this debt. With the cash for this transaction funded by existing shareholders, we have significantly strengthened our balance sheet without using a substantial amount of our cash reserved for our ongoing operations," said Dr. Sijmen de Vries, Chief Executive Officer. "We continue to work on further improvement of our financial position. The reduction of our debt represents a pivotal first step to get a solid foundation from which we can proceed now to unlock the value of our key assets such as Rhucin."
Bondholders who have not yet returned a conversion application and wish to participate in the offer, may still do so by completing and submitting the application by October 13, 2009. Further details are described in the formal announcement on the Company's website.
This is not an offering memorandum or a prospectus and should not be treated as offering material of any sort and is for information purposes only. Not for distribution to any US person or in or into the United States or to any Italian person or address in the republic of Italy.
About Pharming Group NV
Pharming Group NV is developing innovative products for the treatment of genetic disorders, ageing diseases, specialty products for surgical indications, and nutritional products. Pharming's lead product Rhucin® for acute attacks of Hereditary Angioedema has passed clinical development stage and the Market Authorization Application is under review with EMEA. Prodarsan® is in early stage clinical development for Cockayne Syndrome and lactoferrin for use in food products The advanced technologies of the Company include innovative platforms for the production of protein therapeutics, technology and processes for the purification and formulation of these products, as well as technology in the field of DNA repair (via DNage). Additional information is available on the Pharming website, [ http://www.pharming.com ].
This press release contains forward looking statements that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward looking statements.
Contact: Ms. Marjolein van Helmond Pharming Group NV T: +31 (0)71 52 47 431 or +31 (0)6 109 299 54
Press Release (PDF): [ http://hugin.info/132866/R/1346558/323501.pdf ]
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