Ellume has been a company on every investors' lips over the past couple of months. The Brisbane-based medical company has been at the vanguard of Australia's contribution to fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
The company has pioneered an 'at-home' test for COVID-19. Patients can use this test to get an accurate result within 15 minutes without seeing a doctor or getting the test analysed at a lab.
You can look, but you can't own…
So, very understandably, many ASX investors have been looking for ways to invest in Ellume on the ASX. Some are even going as far as searching for an Ellume ticker code. Unfortunately, those efforts have been and will continue to be, fruitless. See, Ellume is a private company, with its shares unavailable for public investors to trade and invest in.
According to a report in the Australian Financial Review (AFR) this week, Ellume actually was considering an ASX-listing through an initial public offering (IPO) around 2½ years ago. The company reportedly even went as far as hiring PAC Partners to assist it with a pre-IPO capital raise and a subsequent listing on the ASX. But alas for its would-be shareholders, this process didn't end up eventuating.
As a private company, Ellume does have shares (84 million according to the AFR report). They are held by a small group of founders, employees and investors at Ellume though. The AFR tells us that Ellume chair and investor Paul Darrouzet holds a quarter of Ellume's shares. Dr Sean Parsons, Ellume's founder and managing director, owns another 14 million.
The rest of Ellume's board also reportedly has ownership stakes. Options and performance shares are often part of board members' salaries as well.
How much are Ellume's shares worth?
It's hard to say exactly how much Ellume and its shares are worth, seeing as the data is not in the public arena. But guesses in the billions are probably not wild. That's because (as we reported at the time) Ellume has recently signed a massive US$250 million contract with the US government to supply 8.5 million testing kits. The deal also involves Ellume building a factory on US soil to meet demand.
Can you invest in Ellume on the ASX?
As we've discussed, you can't directly invest in Ellume on the ASX. However, there are a few other ASX-listed companies that operate in the same space as Ellume. These include Atomo Diagnostics Ltd (ASX: AT1) and Anteotech Ltd (ASX: ADO).
Indeed, Anteotech shares spiked 95% last week on news that it was continuing to work with Ellume in providing some of the technology that goes into the testing.
