Dealing in shares in biopharmaceuticals firm Alltracel, which listed on London's Alternative Investment Market having raised €1.2 million through a placing, will commence on Thursday.
Alltracel said approximately 2.2 per cent of the issued share capital, some 825,843 shares, were placed at 89 pence sterling giving it a market capitalisation of £33 million sterling (€54 million).
The company has never made a profit and hoped to use its listing to help fund technology research to develop a platform for its products.
It made losses of €1.6 million on sales of just €186,232 in the 14 months to the end of last year. This compared with a loss of €824,000 the previous year. Monthly expenses or the company "burn rate" is £100,000 sterling.
Chief executive Mr Gerard Brandon said turnover was up in the first few months of this year and hoped to move into profitability by 2002.
The former Irish plumber and building contractor was operating a small investment fund in 1995 when he visited Brno in the Czech Republic and decided to back a group of Czech scientists whose work forms the basis of Alltracel Pharmaceuticals.
The company has its headquarters in Dublin but production of the 19 drugs it now produces is done in the Czech Republic.
The company's flagship product is a cellulose powder, known as M-doc, that is used in a spray to stop cuts bleeding. It has signed up distributors with royalty-free deals that require its bigger partners to co-brand products with the M-doc label.
Mr Brandon said the strategy, the brainchild of Seymour Pierce, the nominated adviser and broker to the firm, is the reason revenue has accelerated this year.
The listing on AIM has been a long time coming and Mr Brandon first announced his intention to seek a listing in May 1997.
The flotation was going to be on the back of an acquisition of Irish firm Franklin Pharmaceuticals. The deal fell through and so did the listing.
Mr Brandon reiterated his intention to float the company more than once since then.
Raising funds proved long and difficult in the current hostile investment environment and particularly for a small loss-maker like Alltracel.
Mr Brandon had hoped to raise between €1.5-€2.5 million but decided to cut his losses at €1.2 million. Commenting on the placing, Mr Brandon said taking a scientific idea from the laboratory, through regulatory approval, onto the market is quite an achievement in the life science industry and it was the company's near term objective to increase the international reach of these products.
Alltracel has more than 400 shareholders, with 18 per cent of the stock held by Dutch investors, 32 per cent with Irish individuals and the remainder currently with management.
