Premaitha Health PLC Issue of Equity (8871W)

TIDMNIPT

RNS Number : 8871W

Premaitha Health PLC

15 February 2017

Premaitha Health plc

("Premaitha" or the "Company")

Issue of Equity

Manchester, UK - 15 February 2017: Premaitha Health plc (AIM: NIPT), developer of a leading CE-marked non-invasive prenatal screening system, announces that it has agreed to issue to Harwood Capital ("Harwood") 17,000,000 new ordinary shares of 0.1 pence per share, subject to admission to AIM, raising GBP1,487,500 at a price of 8.75 pence per share. Following the allotment of the shares, Harwood's holding will represent 6.9% of the issued ordinary share capital of Premaitha.

The Company's 17,000,000 new ordinary shares of 0.1p each are expected to be admitted to trading on AIM ("Admission") at 8:00 a.m. on 20 February 2017.

Following Admission, the Company's total issued and voting share capital will comprise 245,163,709 ordinary shares of 0.1p each. This figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company.

Adam Reynolds, Chairman, commented:

"We are delighted that a fund of Harwood's quality has identified the opportunity in Premaitha. Their investment follows evidence of further traction with the IONA(R) test in key markets and the recent announcement of our conditional acquisition of Taiwan-based Yourgene Bioscience, which brings expanded market access into Asia - the fastest growing market for non-invasive prenatal testing."

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.

For more information, please contact:

 
 Premaitha Health plc                   Tel: +44 (0) 
                                         161 667 6865 
 Dr Stephen Little, Chief Executive 
  Officer 
 Barry Hextall, Chief Financial 
  Officer 
 [e-mail] 
 
 Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (Nomad)   Tel: +44 (0) 
                                         20 7213 0880 
 Liam Murray / Jo Turner 
 
 finnCap                                Tel: +44 (0) 
                                         20 7220 0500 
 Adrian Hargrave / Scott Mathieson 
  (Corporate Finance) 
 Tony Quirke (Corporate Broking) 
 
 Vigo Communications                    Tel: +44 (0) 
                                         20 7830 9700 
 Ben Simons / Fiona Henson / Antonia 
  Pollock 
 [e-mail] 
 

About Premaitha

Premaitha is a molecular diagnostics company which uses the latest advances in DNA analysis technology to develop safer, faster and regulatory approved non-invasive screening tests for pregnant women.

Premaitha's lead test - the IONA(R) test - was launched in February 2015 and is the leading CE marked complete system which estimates the risk of a fetus being affected with Down's syndrome or other genetic conditions. The IONA(R) test is performed on the mother's blood sample - which contains traces of fetal DNA - and then analysed using next generation DNA sequencing technology from ThermoFisher Scientific.

Unlike existing prenatal screening methods, due to its high level of accuracy, the IONA(R) test can significantly reduce the number of women subjected to unnecessary stressful and invasive follow up diagnostic procedures which are costly, resource intensive and carry a risk of miscarriage.

Non-invasive prenatal screening is an emerging, multi-billion dollar global market and Premaitha's complete CE Marked system enables laboratories and health care practitioners to offer an approved, non-invasive prenatal screening system in-house.

Premaitha is based in Manchester Science Park, United Kingdom and its shares trade on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange (AIM: NIPT). For further information please visit www.premaitha.com. Follow us on twitter @PremaithaHealth.

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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February 15, 2017 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)