Several interested parties both offshore and in New Zealand are circling around the sale of beleaguered Dunedin biotechnology company, Botry Zen.Receivers WHK won't say who but hope to issue an information memorandum by the end of January to those parties
Several interested parties both offshore and in New Zealand are circling around the sale of beleaguered Dunedin biotechnology company, Botry Zen.
Receivers WHK won't say who but hope to issue an information memorandum by the end of January to those parties interested in buying Botry Zen as a going concern.
Botry Zen asked BNZ to appoint receivers in December after it failed to raise the required $1.5 million capital under its share purchase plan.
Earlier that month, hopes were raised when “substantial shareholder” John Paine, of Global Pacific Corporation, agreed to subscribe a minimum of $500,000 to a new convertible notes issue, but this was conditional on shareholders subscribing a minimum of $750,000 to the share purchase plan.
It was also conditional on Botry-Zen raising a total of $2 million via the share purchase plan and the convertible note issue.
At the time, general manager Stephen Lorimer told NBR it was not an ideal time to be going to the market, but the company did not have a choice.
WHK principal Matt Taylor said it was working with several parties and the product had a lot of support.
“We’re certainly getting positive feedback from customers,” he said.
‘We have continued to trade and have the Botry Zen product in the market, we’re selling and keeping customers happy while we work through the detail.”
He said receivers would have a better idea by mid-February of Botry Zen’s debt and unsecured creditors.
Its Botry-Zen and Armour-Zen products, residue and chemical-free fungicides, were developed specifically to control botrytis cinera fungal infection in grapes (“bunch rot” or “grey mould”) – estimated to cost the New Zealand industry $30 million a year.
In New Zealand, the company sold direct to wineries representing 10,000ha from the 30,000ha of productive vines in the country and had 13 more wineries in the evaluation stage, representing 4830ha.
The listed company (NZAX: BOZ) achieved US Environmental Protection Agency approval and has state registration in California.
It hoped to repeat that in Oregon and Washington. Detailed discussions were also underway with several interested parties in Europe.
