Proteome Sciences plunges after highly discounted placing

After offering the shares at a highly discounted price before getting shareholder approval, Proteome Sciences has raised £3.3m through a placing and subscription of new shares to accelerate its strategy and meet client demand.

The AIM-listed company issued the shares at 5p, a 45% discount to their 9.1p closing price on Friday, with chief executive Jeremy Haigh, non-executive Roger McDowell and existing major shareholder Vulpes Life Science Fund all buying shares.

Two thirds of the fundraising has already been signed off, with the balance of £1m subject to shareholder approval at a shareholder meeting on 29 November.

Proteome said the new cash was needed to accelerate its "evolution into a premium contract, service-based biomarker business, underpinned with a bioinformatics capability" as well as ensuring it has the capacity to meet further demand for TMT reagents from Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Interim results last month had shown the group had cash resources of £0.6m at 30 June and the directors said at the time they may need to raise financing within the next 12 months.

Shares in the company were down by 35% to 5.7p just after 0900 GMT on Monday.