£80m AIM market float imminent for life sciences group

York-based Aptamer Group, which develops novel Optimer binders to enable innovation in the life sciences industry, is ready to float on the AIM market with a capitalisation of more than £80m.

It has today announced a conditional placing of 9,202,094 new ordinary shares, at a price of 117 pence per share, with institutional and other investors.

Based on the placing price, the company’s market capitalisation on admission will be approximately £80.7m.

Aptamer Group is a specialist in the provision of aptamer discovery selection services and the development of aptamer-based reagents.

It aims to solve problems for biotech and big pharma by developing molecular binders called aptamers, as an alternative to antibodies which fail to perform 50% to 60% of the time.

Aptamers are a disruptive technology and the market for them is set to expand rapidly over the next five to 10 years.

Aptamer Group has an existing blue-chip customer base and has supplied or collaborated with 75% of the global top 20 pharmaceutical companies.

It has seen organic revenue growth of 400% over the past four years, with upfront deal values ranging from £50,000 to £3.8m.

The placing of the new shares is expected to raise gross proceeds of £10.8m for the company. Admission and the start of dealings on AIM are expected to take place at 8am on 22 December 2021 under the ticker “APTA”.

Aptamer is led by cofounders Dr Arron Tolley, chief executive officer and Dr David Bunka, chief technical officer, who between them have 35 years of aptamer related experience.

Tolley said: “I am pleased to announce that Aptamer has successfully raised £10.8m ahead of our listing on AIM and we look forward to the commencement of trading on 22 December 2021.

“Aptamer is a leader in the provision of aptamer discovery selection services and the development of aptamer-based reagents.

“Our proprietary Optimer^® technology is being commercialised and being used by 75% of the top 20 global pharmaceutical companies.

“This funding will allow our technology to be truly disruptive to the well-established global antibody market, which is currently worth over $145.7bn per annum.

“I am highly excited by the growth prospects for Aptamer in the next generation affinity ligand market and am delighted to welcome our new institutional shareholders and thank our existing ones for their support as the company has grown.”

Andrea Cropley, Louise Barber, Mark Simpson and Gabe Pennington, of Squire Patton Boggs, advised Aptamer on the flotation.