NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Compugen has sold nearly half of its stake in Evogene, pocketing around $3.6 million from the share sale, the Tel Aviv, Israel-based firm said today.
Compugen said that it sold one million shares in a private transaction to a single, unidentified purchaser. It said that proceeds from the sale would be used to fund general corporate purposes through mid-2010.
Following the sale, Compugen holds 1,150,000 shares of Evogene, which uses Compugen's in silico predictive discovery capabilities for agricultural applications.
"[W]e have recently begun discussions with a number of major pharmaceutical and biotech companies regarding various forms of strategic arrangements," Martin Gerstel, co-CEO of Compugen, said in a statement. "As we move forward with these discussions, the funds generated through this sale of a portion of our Evogene holdings provides us with the cash required to fully support our operations through mid next year, even in the absence of any other sources of cash, and without any dilution to Compugen's shareholders."
As of the end of its first quarter on March 31, Compugen had $4.3 million in cash and cash equivalents, not including the market value of its Evogene holdings.