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Cape Town - JSE-listed black empowerment group Sekunjalo Investments has acquired a 50.6% stake in biotechnology
company Bioclones, with the option to increase its shareholding to 60.4% within three years, Sekunjalo announced on Tuesday.
Sekunjalo CEO Iqbal Surve described the acquisition as "an important development in the company's history that will allow it to become an influential player in the global pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector".
As a first tranche in the acquisition, Sekunjalo will subscribe for 4 100 new ordinary shares in Bioclones.
In the second tranche, current Bioclones shareholder Cyril Donninger has granted an option to Sekunjalo to acquire 800 ordinary shares in Bioclones which option can be exercised solely at Sekunjalo's discretion.
The exercise period of the second tranche option is
three years, which if exercised would give Sekunjalo a total 60.4% shareholding in Bioclones.
Bioclones is the largest biotechnology company in Africa devoted to the development and manufacture of biotechnology products for human pharmaceutical use, with new developments focused on the treatment of diseases in man due
to failure of cellular immune responses.
The biotechnology products are aimed at areas relating to infectious diseases, cancers and auto-immune diseases.
Donninger, CEO and shareholder of Bioclones, indicated that the partnership with Sekunjalo would allow Bioclones to unlock the value in its technology and patents that are currently registered worldwide.
Donninger said that Sekunjalo's focus and business model of putting people before profits had made the partnership attractive since it would now be possible to assist in the
development of biotechnology solutions to overcome many of the infectious diseases facing Africa today.
Surve, meanwhile, said that the Bioclones acquisition was an opportunity for Sekunjalo to combine its significant interest in the health care sector along with its corporate expertise to unlock the value present in 22 worldwide registered patents and 8 current patents pending for registration worldwide.
The product portfolio of Biocolones was world class and lent itself to a potential listing in London and on the Nasdaq.
In this regard, the new board of Bioclones and Sekunjalo would jointly be exploring the listing of Bioclones on international stock exchanges, he revealed.
Surve said that whilst the greatest beneficiary of these biotechnology innovations would be South Africans and Africans, the commercial prospects were excellent worldwide, especially in North America, Europe and Asia where similar biotechnology companies, with similar product portfolios, had significant
values.