NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Great Basin Scientific announced after the close of the market on Wednesday that it has received a staff determination letter from the Nasdaq, warning that the company has not yet regained compliance with the exchange's listing requirements and could face delisting.
The Nasdaq first notified Great Basin in October that it had failed to meet continued listing requirements calling for a minimum $35 million market value of listed securities and a $1 minimum bid price on its shares. At that time, the firm had a market value of about $17 million. The Nasdaq gave Great Basin 180 calendar days, or through April 11, to regain compliance.
The company then instituted several measures to shore up its flagging stock price and attempt to regain compliance. In late December, it announced a $20.5 million securities purchase agreement with institutional investors to provide new funding for its ongoing operations, and effected a planned 1-for-35 reverse stock split earlier this month. But it has yet to regain compliance with Nasdaq rules.
The new letter from the exchange, which Great Basin had been expecting to receive, told the firm that it has until April 20 to schedule a hearing before the Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Panel. The company said it expects the hearing to take place in mid-to-late May, where it will present its plan to regain compliance and ask for a 30 day extension.
"We have two possible ways to return to compliance," said CFO Jeff Rona in a statement. "The first would be have our market capitalization rise above $35 million for 10 consecutive business days. The other would be to achieve positive stockholders' equity of $2.5 million. We intend to pursue both paths over the coming six months and we remain optimistic the panel will grant us the added time needed to execute our plan and come into continued listing compliance."
Great Basin's shares tumbled more than 15 percent to $2.66 in morning trading, and it has a current market cap of about $8.7 million.