AFT Pharmaceuticals says decision imminent on dual listing in NZ, Australia

Friday 2nd October 2015

AFT Pharmaceuticals, a drugs developer and reseller, has confirmed it’s close to making a final decision on a share-market listing first mooted in May.

The Australian Financial Review's Street Talk column reported today that the Kiwi firm had kicked off informal investor briefings for a dual listing on the NZX and ASX, with First NZ Capital as an adviser and a value of $200 million to $300 million. AFT founder and majority shareholder Hartley Atkinson denied the reported valuation of the company but confirmed he had been talking to a number of people, including First NZ. Options include raising further investment in the US, a Nasdaq listing, and a dual listing on the two exchanges closer to home.

Atkinson said he’d make a final decision on the company’s fund-raising plans in the next couple of weeks.

In May, Auckland-based AFT raised US$14 million in a capital raising with Houston, Texas-based Capital Royalty taking a 7.58 percent and Milford Asset Management’s active growth fund buying 3.03 percent. Atkinson said that price better reflected the likely valuation of the company.

Later that month the company announced it had raised US$7.5 million in follow-on equity from Capital Royalty, the Atkinson family, AFT board members, and a group of specialist pharmaceutical investors from the US. Capital Royalty now holds 9 percent while Atkinson family interests retain almost 87 percent.

He said no decision had been made on what share of the company might be offered in an initial public offering, though he intended “keeping as much as possible because I believe it will keep growing well and I want to put my money where my mouth is.”

It was likely to seek about about $30 million to speed up its global growth and help fund further commercialisation of its research and development, which includes a pipeline of eight drug candidates in various stages of development.

“We want to get the R&D done quickly because the patents have a fixed time and it makes a lot of sense to go quicker rather than slower,” Atkinson said.

AFT was established by Atkinson in his garage in 1997 with $50,000 in start-up capital after he was made redundant from Roche. It is targeting sales of $80 million this year, up from about $65 million in 2014.

Its best-known product in New Zealand is the heavily promoted pain-killer Maxigesic, which was launched in 2009 and combines paracetamol and ibuprofen in what the company claims is a world-first medicine.

The company has developed more than 55 prescription and non-prescription products, has out-licensing agreements in 40 countries, and has invested heavily in its sales force in New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, and Singapore where it has representative offices.

Atkinson’s LinkedIn page says it remains committed to expanding to be a $100 million turnover company in the near future.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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