MELBOURNE, Australia
Starpharma Holdings Ltd (ASX: SPL, OTCQX: SPHRY) today announced that it has completed a transaction to sell its agrochemicals and Priostar® business (Starpharma Agrochemicals) to Agrium, Inc., (Agrium) (NYSE: AGU, TSE: AGU) for A$35 million in cash consideration. The Starpharma Agrochemical business will be operated by Agrium’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Loveland Products, Inc.
Starpharma Agrochemicals is comprised of key patents and technical know-how as well as a small number of staff dedicated solely to Priostar® dendrimers and agrochemicals operations. This business is independent of Starpharma’s DEP® and VivaGel® products and related intellectual property portfolios.
The cash proceeds from the sale of Starpharma Agrochemicals have further strengthened Starpharma’s balance sheet and will allow Starpharma to focus its resources and activities on its core pharmaceutical development portfolios, including DEP® drug delivery. Starpharma intends to use the funds to accelerate the development and commercialisation of its higher-value pharmaceutical dendrimer-based products and to explore other opportunities in this area of the business. With the net proceeds from the transaction, Starpharma estimates a cash balance of greater than $60 million at 30 June 2017.
Commenting on the transaction, Starpharma Chief Executive Officer, Dr Jackie Fairley said: “The sale of Starpharma Agrochemicals is an exciting milestone for the company and the culmination of our strategy to maximise the value of the Priostar® technology. We achieved this outcome through the development of a range of value-added formulations utilising Priostar® to a stage where those products had high attraction value as differentiated products for a market-facing third party such as Agrium. It’s a very pleasing outcome, Agrium is an ideal buyer to realise the full potential of Priostar®.”
“The proceeds from the sale of Starpharma Agrochemicals places Starpharma in an excellent financial position to expand and accelerate the development of its internal DEP® programs, and increase shareholder value through its pharmaceutical portfolio.”
The transaction involves the sale of Starpharma’s wholly-owned US subsidiary, Dendritic Nanotechnologies, Inc., and a newly created Australian subsidiary containing all Priostar® and agrochemical intellectual property and business assets.
The sale of Starpharma’s Agrochemicals business to Agrium follows a global process conducted by Starpharma and its financial adviser, Macquarie Capital (Australia) Limited.
A copy of Agrium’s news release is available at: www.agrium.com/en/investors/news-releases.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170613006588/en/
CONTACT
WE Buchan Consulting
Rebecca Wilson, +61 417 382 391 (mobile)
rwilson@buchanwe.com.au
Arthur
Chan, +61 2 9237 2805
achan@buchanwe.com.au
or
Starpharma:
Dr
Jackie Fairley, +61 3 8532 2704
Chief Executive Officer
Nigel
Baade, +61 3 8532 2704
CFO and Company Secretary
investor.relations@starpharma.com
www.starpharma.com
