Brussels, Paris –4 April 2014 – EnterNext, the Euronext subsidiary designed to promote and grow its market for SMEs[1],today congratulated Genticel, a French biotechnology company and specialist in the development of therapeutic vaccines whose objective is to eliminate the human papillomavirus (HPV) responsible for cervical cancer, on its successful admission to trading on Euronext’s compartment C in Paris and in Brussels.
Based in Paris and Toulouse, Genticel develops therapeutic vaccines against cervical cancer. Its vaccine candidates are aimed at eliminating, at an early stage, cells carrying the human papillomavirus (HPV) responsible for cervical cancer, one of the most common cancers of women worldwide. ProCervix, a “first-in-class” therapeutic vaccine candidate currently in Phase II clinical trials, is designed to eliminate cells infected by type 16 and/or type 18 HPV virus located at the cervix of the uterus before the development of high-grade or cancerous lesions, thus addressing a serious public health problem. Genticel is also developing a second therapeutic vaccine candidate called Multivalent HPV that targets six strains of cancerous HPV.
Genticel (ticker symbol: GTCL) was listed through the admission to trading of existing shares making up the company’s equity and the sale of 4,367,088 newly issued shares, resulting in a capital increase of €34.5 million.
The admission and issue price of Genticel shares was set at €7.90 per share, leading to a market capitalisation of approximately €119.4 million.
“We congratulate Genticel on its dual listing in Paris and Brussels. This IPO will help the company raise its liquidity and visibility with investor communities, both domestic and international,” said Eric Forest, Chairman and CEO of EnterNext. “EnterNext will be advising and assisting Genticel at each stage in its growth and participation in trading, in particular to help it make best use of the range of financing solutions available to it on our markets.”
Benedikt Timmerman, Genticel founder and CEO, said: “We are delighted with investors’ response to our company and with our successful IPO. We would like to extend warm thanks to all the investors that joined us on this occasion, as well as our historic shareholders who renewed their confidence in our company as we reached this important milestone in Genticel’s growth. We are also very pleased with the interest shown by individual investors, particularly in Belgium, and took extra measures to better meet their demand for shares. We now have the financial resources we need to develop our portfolio of candidate therapeutic vaccines, which are designed to give therapeutic options to women carrying the human papillomavirus and thereby reduce the number of cases of cervix carcinoma. In particular, Genticel will continue developing ProCervix, our lead candidate, which has blockbuster potential, with a view to forging a value-creating industrial partnership within the next few years.”