Melbourne-based respiratory imaging company 4DMedical has raised $150 million from institutional investors to accelerate commercialisation of its key CT:VQ product in the US where it has already been deployed to four major health operators.
The placement has been announced in tandem with news that CEO Andreas Fouras and CFO Julian Sutton have chosen to exercise performance options early and lift their shareholdings in the company to about 12.4 per cent between them.
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The capital raise comes on the heels of a strong take-up of 4DMedical’s CT:VQ product, which is a non-invasive alternative to traditional nuclear medicine VQ (ventilation/perfusion) scans that provides detailed, 3D imaging of lung function without the need for radioactive tracers or contrast dye.
The CT:VQ has been adopted by four US academic medical centres within four months of US Food and Drug Administration clearance, including Stanford, Cleveland Clinic, University of Miami and UC San Diego Health.
The institutional placement was priced at $3.80 per share – a discount to the company’s closing price yesterday of $4.29 per share.
However, the shares have held up well, trading just 15c lower at $4.14 at 11.14am (AEDT) and well up from their 52-week low of 22.5c.
The shares hit a high last week of $4.84, more than double their price in October when the company announced that Stanford University was the first academic medical centre to adopt CT:VQ commercially following FDA clearance.
4DMedical says the placement attracted strong support from existing shareholders with applications at “multiple times” the placement size, while also securing cornerstone investments from new, global long-only institutional shareholders.
“We are pleased to welcome several high-quality global institutional investors to our share register and sincerely appreciate the strong ongoing support from existing shareholders,” says 4DMedical founder and CEO Andreas Fouras.
“This placement provides 4DMedical with the balance sheet strength to accelerate US commercialisation of CT:VQ at a time when unprecedented interest from clinicians is driving rapid adoption across leading academic medical centres.”
Fouras says since FDA clearance was secured in September, the adoption by elite institutions has “validated both our technology and our go-to-market strategy”.
“With a strong commercial pipeline ahead of us, strategic partnerships including Philips, and now a cash position exceeding $200 million, we have the resources to drive CT:VQ to become the new standard in pulmonary imaging while taking the company through profitability and to the next set of opportunities.
“Importantly, we have delivered this $150 million placement with less than 4 per cent dilution, and I am excited to have taken this opportunity to increase my shareholding in the company. We are only getting started.”
After exercising 1.89 million options, Fouras will hold 66.4 million shares, or 11.9 per cent of 4DMedical’s shares.
Velocimetry Consulting, an entity associated with Fouras, plans to sell 263,157 shares to partially fund the option exercise cost.
CFO Julian Sutton, who has opted to exercise 4.26 million options in conjunction with the institutional placement, also plans to sell 2.26 million at $3.80 per share to fully fund the option exercise cost and associated tax liabilities.
4DMedical plans to use the proceeds of the placement to for sales, marketing and business development in the US, as well as customer support and further research and development to grow its product portfolio.
