Venn Life Sciences completes £4.74m Innovenn sale

18th Nov 2016 09:38

(ShareCast News) - Drug trial company Venn Life Sciences has completed the sale of its stake in Innovenn UK innovation unit to Integumen for up to £4.74m that will see it retain a majority stake as the newly created skin science company looks to float on AIM.Integumen has been set up by Venn's director Tony Richardson and Innovenn's managing director Declan Service to float Innovenn on AIM and acquire complementary businesses in the areas of skin science, oral-health and woundcare.Before the sale the company converted a loan to Innovenn of £1.29m into shares of £0.001 each, increasing its stake to 70%.The remaining 30% is owned by Cayman Islands-based Helium Rising Stars Fund, which is managed by Swiss hedge fund manager ISPartners.Innovenn reported a loss before tax of £385,000 and had net liabilities of £121,000 at 31st December 2015, and the deal crystalises a gain on disposal in the company's consolidated accounts of about £959,000.Venn has spun off the innovation arm partly to allow it to concentrate on its core activities of drug development and clinical research services, but perhaps more crucially so that investors have a clearer understanding of the underlying value of that core business.Shares in Venn Life Sciences were down 0.24% to 24.44p at 0926 GMT.