Bio-Light Israeli Life Sciences Investments Ltd. (TASE:BOLT) has suspended the IPO of a subsidiary and is seeking alternative sources of financing. Two weeks ago, the company announced that portfolio company Zetiq Technologies Ltd. had set up a subsidiary in the US, C-Detect Diagnostics Inc., and that it had begun to raise $5 million.
Zetiq has developed a technique for marking cancer cells for the screening, monitoring, and diagnosing of early stage cancer and contrasting the cancer cells from healthy cells. The financing for C-Detect was to fund commercialization of Zetiq's CellDetect technology for the diagnosis of cervical cancer in the US, Canada, and Mexico. It was being held so that US pension funds could sign memoranda of understanding (MOU) ahead of an investment in C-Detect, on the condition that the company listed for trading in the US. Biolight has suspended the registration.
Biolight made the decision after Spark Kick Off Investments Ltd., which is handling C-Detect's offering, said that there were concerns about the likelihood that the MOUs with the pension funds about the investment in C-Detect would materialize. Spark said that a company for which it provides similar services, and which had similar agreements with the pension funds, found it difficult to exercise the investment agreements.
Biolight said that registering C-Detect for trading might continue, if Zetiq could demonstrate with a high degree of certainty that the MOUs and investments would materialize. Biolight added that Zetiq notified it that it was reviewing its options about the financing, and that it was simultaneously seeking alternative sources of funding for its activity.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 16, 2010
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