The transaction came about as we were approached by the cornerstone investor (https://sig.com/capital-markets/) contrary to what people may believe on HC, thinking I have given this information to certain people, this is not true and there is nothing to hide and I am happy for the fund to be known - I make myself available to all shareholders and I am happy to relay this to anyone that reaches out. The simple fact is, they couldn’t be named in the announcement as their PR approval process takes weeks, we obviously do not have that much time particularly when we are in trading halt. They recently placed $40m in ASX IMU and were not named in their announcement , SIG are the exact type of investor we require. They are hear for the long term and will continue to support us on market, which is exactly what we need. I had been working with them for close to 3 months, I couldn’t say anything at the AGM as we were in the final stages of negotiating. I had to proceed with the narrative at the AGM to ensure we put ourselves in the best possible position to negotiate the terms of the deal, and it did afford us the opportunity to get better terms. I understand this may not have gone down well, however my goal has remained the same and always will, the business and shareholders comes first (even if our shareholders don’t see it that way, I can assure you it is the best decision for us long term).
I am a major shareholder in the IHL myself (and have been since listing, I have participated in every capital raise since 2016), I have all my family and friends heavily invested as well, so I can understand the position that all shareholders are in. I promise, every decision that I make it is for the best of the business long term. I understand some shareholders have not been impressed, however this is actually a very good outcome for the business given the new partners we have long term. We have not previously had institutional support, we do now. These funds will continue to show on market support. They even brought a large number of shares again yesterday.
We are commencing several phase 2 studies next year, in particularly for our lead assets IHL-42X. This is across 20-30 sites in the US and Europe, this is a really expensive trial. We need to ensure we have a strong cash position. How would our shareholder base feel if I let the business get to a position where we could not complete these trials?
There was very minimal dilution with this raise and the participating funds are here for the long term, meaning they want an exit at a product registration or acquisition. This was a strategic move was they are going to continue to support our funding requirements as we continue to scale each asset and trials into Phase 3 and our path to registration.
Fundamentally our business has never been stronger with the success we have had with the development of our assets this year. I promise you nothing affects me more than seeing the share price at lower levels and I do everything I can day in and day out to ensure we are going to be ok long term. Broader market conditions have deplorable this year, but that is no excuse, we will continue to strive to deliver the best outcome for our shareholders.
We have a big 2023 planned, it would be worthwhile checking slide 26 of the capital raising presentation that was released today. This shows what we have coming up over the next 18months, next year is going to be a big year and now we have the freedom to operate with the listed assets running in parallel.
My offer to jump on a call is still there if you want to take me up on it, I would be more than happy to discuss with you so you. I am also doing an interview with Proactive Investors today to get further messaging across.
We now have the right core institutional funds to support our business long term and this will allow us to continue to deliver as much news flow that we have prided ourselves on.
Regards
Joel Latham Managing Director & CEO +61 409 840 786<tel:+61409840786> [email protected] incannex.com.au<https://
IHL Price at posting:
20.5¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
