SeD Biomedical (SeD Biomedical), a Singapore-based wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore eDevelopment Limited, focusing in the area of biomedical product development, and Amarantus BioScience Holdings, a US-headquartered biotechnology company focused on developing products for regenerative medicine, neurology and orphan diseases, have announced that both companies have entered into a non-binding Letter of Intent (LOI) for Amarantus to acquire as many as four of SeD Biomedical's biotechnology platforms.
SeD Biomedical and its Singapore-based holding company, SeD, are under the control of current SeD CEO and largest shareholder Chan Heng Fai. The LOI comes as part of the Amarantus' overall restructuring plan initiated in November, 2016. Dominick & Dickerman, a New York-based investment banking and advisory firm founded in 1870, is serving as financial advisor to Amarantus for the restructuring and potential asset acquisitions.
The LOI is intended to be a basis for further negotiations and does not constitute any legally binding obligations.
Prior to the Asset Investment, SeD Biomed will make available funding to help Amarantus pay down key expenses, and initiate the process of settling Amarantus' outstanding secured debt and convertible preferred equity securities, in addition to Amarantus' accounts payable. The use of funds will be mutually agreed between Amarantus and SeD Biomed.
SeD Biomed currently has not acquired any of the abovementioned biomedical assets, the acquisition of which is still subject to negotiation, appropriate due diligence and the signing of definitive agreement(s).
Each of the Target Assets shall be subject to valuation by an independent expert valuation firm, mutually determined by SeD Biomed and Amarantus. The costs for the independent expert valuation shall be borne solely by Amarantus.
The consideration, principally by way of shares, shall be paid by Amarantus to SeD Biomed in such manner as to be mutually agreed and determined based on the independent expert valuation.
Amarantus BioScience Holdings (AMBS) is a biotechnology company developing treatments and diagnostics for diseases in the areas of neurology, regenerative medicine and orphan diseases. AMBS acquired the rights to the Engineered Skin Substitute program (ESS), a regenerative medicine-based approach for treating severe burns with full-thickness autologous skin grown in tissue culture. AMBS has development rights to eltoprazine, a phase 2b-ready small molecule indicated for Parkinson's disease levodopa-induced dyskinesia, adult ADHD and Alzheimer's aggression, and owns the intellectual property rights to a therapeutic protein known as mesencephalic astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor (MANF) and is developing MANF-based products as treatments for brain and ophthalmic disorders. MANF was discovered from Amarantus' proprietary discovery engine PhenoGuard. AMBS also received 80 million shares of Avant Diagnostics, via the sale of its wholly-owned subsidiary Amarantus Diagnostics.