Prolor Biotech Inc. (AMEX: PBTH; TASE: PBTH) fell 4.4% by midafternoon on the TASE today to NIS 27, after falling 10% on the American Stock Exchange yesterday to $6.71, giving a market cap of $310 million. Prolor held its IPO on Wall Street in mid-2007, before the crash, and investors in the company probably find it hard to understand why the share plummeted for no reason and without any announcement by the company.
Prolor dual-listed on the TASE last month, and in included on the Tel Aviv 100 Index. The company develops proteins for therapeutic uses. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) chairman Philip Frost is Prolor's largest shareholder, with a 17.79% stake in the company.
Consultancy firm Crystal Research received a block of 100,000 options in Prolor in 2006 as payment for services rendered. The company sold the options yesterday, a month before maturity, at a discount of 3% on Friday's closing price on AMEX. Crystal Research sold the options to an institutional investor for a total of $337,000. The sale apparently prompted other investors to dump shares.
The fall in Prolor's share price came despite its inclusion in a "TheStreet" article yesterday, "10 companies least likely to go bankrupt".
Prolor has not responded to the report, nor has made any announcement of a negative nature of any kind.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 23, 2010
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