Hadasit Bio Holdings Ltd. (TASE:HDST), the biotech arm of Hadasit - the Technology Transfer Company of Hadassah Medical Organization yesterday obtained permission from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to list on Nasdaq. Beginning today, the company's American Depository Shares (ADS) are listed on the Bulletin Board under the ticker "HADSY".
Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE: BK) is the sponsor under the Level I Sponsored ADR Program. The registration enables Hadasit Bio to be listed on Wall Street without a public offering, because it has sufficient cash. In any case the primary market is not favorable for biomed companies, especially Israeli ones.
Hadasit Bio CEO Ophir Shahaf told "Globes", "When issuing ADRs, there is no offering of new shares, but securities that track the share on the TASE. Bank of New York Mellon is sponsoring the measure, and it will manage trading vis-à-vis Israel. For each security bought from us, it buys 20 Hadasit Bio shares on the TASE. Profits and dividends, if any, are paid to investors in dollars."
Shahaf said that the listing was not expensive. "The Bank of New York Mellon shares in the costs, because it wants to promote the measure."
"Globes": For who else is such a plan suited?
Shahaf: "Companies with products portfolios, or which are unknown, because investors who don’t know measure you by your announcements. I wouldn’t recommend this for cash-strapped companies, but for companies with cash for at least one year, because the market punishes you for signaling distress, for raising capital too quickly after an offering without achieving milestones. In the biomed industry, it is easy to have a year without an important milestone, so you have to come prepared.
Hadasit Bio's share price rose 1.3% on the TASE today to NIS 1.01, after rising 4.2% yesterday, giving a market cap of NIS 93 million.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 20, 2011
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