Cambrio Presses Ahead With Flotation After Postponement

UK company Cambrio is pressing ahead with its flotation after a delay of one week. The firm hopes to raise between L10 and L12 million ($15.5-$18.6 million), reduced from previous estimates and bringing the valuation of the firm down to below the previously envisaged L25 million (Marketlet-ters June 3 and 24).

Joanne Lake of Henry Cooke Corporate Finance, which is sponsoring the flotation, told the Marketletter that the difficulties in marketing the shares stemmed from some confusion in the market regarding biotechnology stocks. The UK biotechnology sector has turned bearish in recent weeks and this seems to be having a knock-on effect on Cambrio.

However, Ms Lake commented that Cambrio, which in its pathfinder prospectus is defined as "a specialist pharmaceutical group," has been wrongly placed alongside biotechnology companies which generally have no products on the market and are making considerable losses along with costly R&D. Cambrio, she said, is more like a small pharmaceutical company, has a good range of products on the market and provides pharmaceuical services to the industry through, for example, the acquisition of Penn Pharmaceuticals.