NEW YORK, June 25 (GenomeWeb News) - Proteome Systems has begun the process of filing an IPO with the Australian Stock Exchange, according to Keith Williams, the company's CEO.
Williams told ProteoMonitor this week that the company had to take a significant cut to its original planned listing price in order to go public. The company now plans to file with an approximately AU$160 million ($110 million) listing, compared with the AU$300 million ($206 million) that it had hoped for. Consequently, the company now aims to raise AU$35 million rather than an anticipated AU$45 million in the IPO. Patersons Securities is managing the stock float.
Williams expressed confidence in the stock's ability to succeed in the public market at the listed price. "I am pretty comfortable in terms of comparables, because many of the listed biotechs are at an early stage, [and] we have a real solid business in terms of 140 employees," Williams told ProteoMonitor. "So in comparable terms I think it was fairly easy to get to the price we got."
Still, Williams said an erratic growth pattern of the company's revenues was to blame for what he admitted has been a frustrating experience with investors. (For a complete version of this story see the June 25 issue of ProteoMonitor.)