NeuronZ brainchild prepares for listing on securities market

By Duncan Bridgeman

Friday 12th April 2002

A subsidiary of high-profile biotechnology research company NeuronZ is to list on the unlisted securities market in June.

BrainZ Instruments, set up by NeuronZ and electronic technology company Tru-Test, will look to raise $6 million through the issue of 12 million shares at 50c each.

The money raised in the issue is to be used to commercialise a medical device called the brain monitor, designed to detect brain injury in premature infants.

BrainZ chief executive Mark Bellas said he would not comment on the listing until a prospectus was released next month but it is understood the venture is pursuing a distribution partner to help launch the brain monitor into the US market.

The software was also being developed to detect brain injury in adults.

The BrainZ technology had been developed by Associate Professor Chris Williams at the University of Auckland.

Mr Bellas said clinical trials carried out in Holland and in Australia had shown the technology could detect injury earlier than alternative brain scanning technologies and could sit at a patient's bedside without harmful side-effects.

Mr Bellas is director of investment at Oceania and Eastern Group - a major shareholder in NeuronZ.

A proportion of the new capital would be used to repay NeuronZ for its research and development work incurred since the BrainZ venture began last year.

NeuronZ is the majority shareholder in BrainZ, which would have a total of 45.3 million shares if the new issue is successful.

The new shares would initially be offered in a private placement to preferred investors, who would eventually hold a 26% fully diluted shareholding in BrainZ.

NeuronZ is a University of Auckland-linked company bankrolled by high-profile venture capitalists.

Investors include Jenny Gibbs and New Zealand Seed Fund, owned mainly by private investors including The Warehouse's Stephen Tindall and Telecom chairman Roderick Deane.

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