NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – AutoGenomics once again withdrew its planned initial public offering after failing to meet a Feb. 15 deadline to provide its latest financial information to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, a company official confirmed to GenomeWeb Daily News.
Ramanath Vairavan, senior vice president of sales and marketing for the Vista, Calif.-based molecular diagnostics firm, said that the company hopes to refile for an IPO in the second quarter.
AutoGenomics had until Feb. 15 to file its fourth quarter financials with the SEC in order to keep its preliminary prospectus active, Vairavan said. If the company refiles, it would be the second time in less than two years that it does so.
The firm originally filed for an IPO in 2008, hoping to raise as much as $86.3 million, but withdrew its registration statement in 2011 without providing a reason.
AutoGenomics then refiled its IPO in September targeting $65 million. That figure was reduced to $62 million — if the offering's underwriters exercised their overallotment options in full — last month. In an amended Form S-1 at the time it said that it expected to offer 6 million shares of its common stock at a price of between $9 and $11 per share.
The underwriters on the offering were Leerink Swann, Mizuho Securities, Cantor Fitzgerald, and Stephens.
Vairavan said that it is not yet clear if they will remain the underwriters if and when AutoGenomics refiles for its IPO, but that each has expressed interest in taking on that role again.
AutoGenomics develops and markets a molecular diagnostic system called the Infiniti, which was cleared by the FDA in 2007, as well as a menu of genetic tests. Its tests "provide reference laboratories, hospitals and specialty clinics with genetic test results in a broad range of market segments, including personalized medicine, women's health, oncology, and infectious disease," the company said in its preliminary prospectus.
While the company has not completed its full financials for the fourth quarter, Vairavan said that AutoGenomics brought in $18 million in revenues in 2012, up from $8 million in 2011.