Evotec Acquires Cyprotex PLC

On 15th December 2016, Evotec announced the successful closing of the acquisition of 100% shares in Cyprotex PLC ("Cyprotex", AIM: CRX-GB), a specialist pre-clinical contract research organisation in ADME-Tox and DMPK headquartered in the UK. The proposed acquisition was announced in detail on 26 October 2016.

Following a scheme of arrangement regulated by the UK takeover code, all shares of Cyprotex have been acquired by and transferred to Evotec AG effective 14 December 2016 and the shares will this morning be cancelled from AIM. Evotec is paying £ 55.7 m (EUR 66.3 m; at an assumed £/EUR exchange rate of 1.19) in cash for the acquisition of all 26.1 million issued and to be issued Cyprotex shares and the funding of company debt mainly in the context of loan notes. The offer of 1.60 £ per Cyprotex share reflects a 9.4% premium to the VWAP of the past 30 trading days at AIM prior to the offer on 26 October 2016. MCF Corporate Finance, led by Ian Henderson, acted as Evotec's exclusive financial adviser throughout the acquisition process.

Cyprotex, headquartered in the UK, was founded in 1999 and is publicly traded on AIM (CRX). The company currently has 136 employees working from sites at Macclesfield and Alderley Park, both of which are located near Manchester in the UK, and at Watertown, MA, and Kalamazoo, MI, in the USA. Cyprotex will continue to operate and serve its loyal client base in all currently existing segments under its brand name "Cyprotex" whilst employees and capabilities will be integrated into Evotec's global drug discovery group, thereby leveraging both companies' extensive partner networks and identifying further commercial synergies.

Dr Mario Polywka, Chief Operating Officer of Evotec, commented: "We are pleased the acquisition has closed and we can now approach the exciting phase of welcoming Cyprotex' employees and clients to our global drug discovery services platform. The addition of the market's most industrialised ADME-Tox platform and proven expertise in in vitro ADME screening, mechanistic and high-content toxicology screening and predictive modelling to our offering substantially improves our ability to provide our alliance partners with access to the most comprehensive drug discovery platform. Cyprotex' proven technology platform and its expert and dedicated employees perfectly augment Evotec's business strategy and offering."

Dr Werner Lanthaler, Chief Executive Officer of Evotec, added: "The highest quality and completeness of our drug discovery platform is key to improve the efficiency in the process for our partners. With Cyprotex we make here an important next step. We warmly welcome the Cyprotex employees to the Evotec Group and look forward to working with them."

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