Shares in Antisense Therapeutics Limited (ASX: ANP) are tumbling today following a heavily oversubscribed placement.
At the time of writing, the Antisense share price is trading at 22 cents, down 8.33%. This means that its shares have now fallen more than 20% in the past week alone.
What's driving Antisense shares lower?
A catalyst for today's fall in Antisense shares is that investors may be concerned about an impending share dilution.
According to its release, Antisense advised that both institutional and sophisticated investors took part in the placement. The firm commitments received will raise $20 million for the company through the issuance of around 83.33 million ordinary shares.
The offer price will be listed at 24 cents apiece and includes one free attaching unlisted option with every 2 shares subscribed. The strike price of the exercisable option will be at a price of 48 cents for each share applied. These options will have an expiry date on the earlier of either 20 December 2024 or 20 business days after the acceleration trigger date.
The board noted that many of the company's shareholders did not have the opportunity to participate in the offer. As such, an entitlement offer has been put forward which will enable eligible shareholders to apply for 1 new share for every 9.4 existing shares owned.
The issue price is also listed at 24 cents per new share whilst also receiving one free unlisted option for every 2 new shares issued. This is expected to raise an additional $16.8 million for the company.
Funds collected from the placement will be allocated towards covering a number of costs for the ATL1102 Phase IIb/III clinical study. The clinical trial will run for 52-weeks and will be assessed for muscle strength among a number of participants.
About the Antisense share price
It's been a wild ride for Antisense shareholders, with the company's shares accelerating by almost 80% year to date. Looking at a longer time frame, the Antisense share price is up around 140% since this time last year.
Based on today's price, Antisense presides a market capitalisation of around $137.87 million, with approximately 574 million shares outstanding.
