Sources inform ''Globes'' that breast cancer diagnostic company Real Imaging Ltd. plans to raise NIS 13 million on the TASE, following its merger with stock market shell Bee Contact Communications Ltd. (TASE:BCNT). The company has filed a prospectus for the offering.
The offering will be held at NIS 0.37 per share, above yesterday's close of NIS 0.362 per share. The effective price, taking the warrants into account, will be NIS 0.30 per share. The share price fell 14.4% by midday today to NIS 0.31, giving a market cap of NIS 60 million.
In May, Bee Contact acquired 93% of Real Imaging and has an option to acquire the rest, in exchange for Real Imaging's shareholders acquiring 85% of Bee Contact. Most of Real Imaging's shareholders are British. Bee Contact will convene a general shareholders meeting in early July to approve the purchase of the remaining 7% of Real Imaging, giving it full control of the company.
Real Imaging planned to raise NIS 40 million at a company value of over NIS 100 million, after money, in a TASE IPO in 2010, but withdrew the plan.
Real Imaging still has no sales revenue from its imaging diagnostic device, and it lost NIS 31.4 million in the first quarter of 2011, including NIS 23 million was a benefit for shareholders' investment. The actual loss from operations was therefore NIS 8.4 million, after losing NIS 22 million in 2010 as a whole. The company had NIS 1.34 million cash prior to the merger.
Real Imaging believes that it will begin sales in 2012, after conducting a large multicenter clinical trial and assuming that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will approve the device on the basis of the trial results.
Real Imaging CEO Boaz Arnon and COO Uzi Aharony founded the company in 2004. The company's device, called RUTH, combines 3D images and infrared signals over time, followed by a proprietary algorithmic analysis to create a 3D image of the breast. The company says that its device provides earlier and more accurate diagnosis of breast cancer compared with current methods.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 22, 2011
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