Financial Times
19-Jul-2000

COMPANIES & FINANCE, UK.
Keryx Plans Dollars 250m Dual Listing
By Francesco Guerrera

Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, an Israeli drug discovery group, is to be the first company to float simultaneously on Nasdaq and Aim with a listing that could value it at about Dollars 250m (Pounds 168m).

The Jerusalem-based company, which is developing drugs against kidney failure in diabetics and prostate cancer, hopes to raise Dollars 50m through an institutional and retail offering.

Shares in the group, which last year made a pre-tax loss of Dollars 9m, are expected to start trading in London and New York next week.

The flotation of Keryx will test the interest for biotechnology companies from investors on both sides of the Atlantic following volatility in the sector.

The company believes funds raised in the float and its existing cash of Dollars 6m will last for 18 months. It plans to use the funds to develop its drugs. Keryx's most advanced product is a treatment against kidney failure in diabetic patients.

About 9m people suffer from diabetes in the US alone. Up to 1.8m of them are believed to be affected by kidney problems. Keryx believes the market for treating the condition is worth more than Dollars 1bn. The company has applied to the US regulator to carry out a clinical trial in humans.

The group is also developing a novel way to discover drugs based on enzymes called "protein kinases", which control several functions carried out by cells; their hyperactivity can contribute to diseases.

Keryx has developed a way of identifying compounds that can "turn off" those enzymes and prevent the onset of diseases.

The float is sponsored by WestLB Panmure and Roth Capital Partners.

Meanwhile, TranXenoGen, a group that plans to develop drugs from chicken eggs, closed its first day on Aim at 234 1/2p, up 34 1/2p.

Copyright © The Financial Times Limited .