Stem cell specialist raises £1.47m through share placing

Manchester stem cell services company WideCells Group has raised around £1.47m, before expenses, through a placing of 48m shares.

As part of the placing, the group also intends to make available subscriptions of up to £650,000 by way of a live market bookbuild, of which £200,000 is conditionally committed and forms part of the £1.47m proceeds, and subscriptions up to £450,000 would represent further gross proceeds for the group.

The live market bookbuild will involve the issue of up to 21,666,667 new ordinary shares.

The group said while the current maximum share issuance under the placing is envisaged to be 64,033,333 ordinary shares, it reserves the right to increase the size of the live market bookbuild, and therefore the placing, in the event of over-subscription.

Funds raised will be used to expand the group’s core stem cell services as it looks to build its revenue profile.

This will focus on driving sales of its first of its kind global stem cell insurance plan CellPlan, and its stem cell storage services, which are provided through the group’s state-of-the-art cryogenics facility in Manchester.

Proceeds from the placing and bookbuild will be used to repay £120,000 of debt, while £150,000 is earmarked for product development, £110,000 for the CellPlan platform, product development and roll-out, £33,000 will go towards the Wideacademy platform, courseware and roll-out, while £1.058m is for general working capital.

WideCells Group is focused on making stem cell treatments accessible and affordable.

This is achieved through three divisions:

CellPlan, which the group says is the world’s first stem cell healthcare insurance plan with financial cover for medical treatment, travel and accommodation expenses and concierge service to manage the treatment process.

WideCells, involving The Institute of Stem Cell Technology which has been established and is based in the University of Manchester Innovation Centre to provide stem cell storage services and focus on stem cell research and regenerative medicine. Its international cryogenics division specialises in stem cell storage, with the group currently offering umbilical cord blood and tissue storage services to clients in the UK and Europe under the brand name BabyCells.

Wideacademy is an education and training division to promote awareness of the benefits of stem cell storage across the global general practice community.

The group said it has built an experienced senior management team that has been integral to the development of its growth and business to date.

Cord blood, which is taken from the umbilical cord, provides the most effective source of stem cells for families due to it being simple, safe and painless to collect relative to other sources of stem cells such as bone marrow – WideCells will focus on promoting the collection and storage of cord blood.

Since 2005, there has been a 300% increase in the number of illnesses that can be treated using stem cells.

Currently, 82 illnesses can be treated using stem cell procedures.

Despite initial storage often costing no more than a few thousand pounds, actual treatment can cost in the hundreds of thousands of pounds.