- The Board of Directors will ask shareholders to vote on the early dissolution of the Company
- An extraordinary Shareholders' Meeting will be convened in the coming weeks
Regulatory News:
STENTYS (Paris:STNT) (FR0010949404 STNT), a French group specialized in medical technologies for interventional cardiology, today announces that its search for a strategic partner has failed and the Board of Directors has decided to ask its shareholders to vote on the dissolution of the Company.
As announced several quarters ago, the market conditions within the sector in which the Company operates have deteriorated significantly. Faced with an increasingly critical context for the development of the Company, Senior Management and the Board of Directors have actively sought solutions to its production and market penetration problems, but unfortunately no solutions have been found. The Board of Directors has met to assess the situation and make the appropriate decisions given the failure of talks with potential partners.
In a context of falling prices for coronary stents, balloons and accessories that have led to a continuing erosion of its revenues, the Company has been having to cope with the significant tariff increases imposed by its production subcontractors, affecting the entire product range of the Company. Following months of negotiations with these subcontractors, the Company has been unable to obtain new agreements enabling it to maintain a competitive pricing structure. Furthermore, the increasingly restrictive regulatory environment does not allow the development and introduction of new and less costly devices within competitive timeframes.
Having expanded its product portfolio thanks to the acquisition of MINVASYS, the Company actively strove to improve its production costs while continuing to seek alternative distribution solutions. Within this framework, and in view of the context described above, the Company initiated a search for strategic partners in order to improve its manufacturing and sales circuits. As well as direct contacts with a number of players within this sector, the Company appointed in November 2018 a financial advisor to assist it in its search for European, North American and Asian strategic partners. None of the steps taken nor discussions held with the various possible partners have been successful.
Within this context, the Board of Directors feels that the conditions for the viability of the Company's activity are not fulfilled, and it has no other alternative that would allow the Company's long-term future to be ensured. The Board of Directors therefore intends to ask shareholders to vote on the early dissolution of the Company to allow its liquidation in the best possible conditions. The Group's cash position at June 30, 2019 stood at €8.1 million. This cash position shall be fully used to face the company's liabilities. The Company does not foresee any liquidating dividend to the shareholders.
An Extraordinary Shareholders' Meeting will thus be called to vote on this proposal in September or October. Within this framework, the Company is considering asking the competent commercial court to appoint an ad hoc representative to assist it in the steps to be taken and to ensure that the interests of the various stakeholders are preserved.
Net asset value as of June 30, 2019 will be released by October 31st, 2019. The Company requested the suspension of the trading of its shares on Euronext Paris until that date.
About STENTYS
The STENTYS group develops and markets minimally-invasive cardiovascular solutions for the needs of interventional cardiology. Its extensive range of innovative products, including drug-eluting stents, coronary and drug-eluting balloons as well as cardiovascular accessories, is marketed in over 60 countries. Thanks to its flagship product, Xposition S, the self-apposing stent that adapts to vessels with variable diameters and enables the treatment of complex arterial disorders, and to its portfolio of balloons and accessories, STENTYS covers all coronary indications.
Additional information is available at www.stentys.com
STENTYS is listed on Compartment C of Euronext Paris
ISIN: FR0010949404 Ticker: STNT
Forward-looking statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements about the Company that are based on numerous assumptions regarding the Company's present and future business strategies and the environment in which it will operate in the future which may not be accurate. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks which may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, risks associated with the development and commercialization of the Company's products, market acceptance of the Company's products, its ability to manage growth, the competitive environment in relation to its business area and markets, its ability to enforce and protect its patents and proprietary rights, uncertainties related to the U.S. FDA approval process, slower than expected rates of patient recruitment for clinical trials, the outcome of clinical trials, and other factors, including those described in the Section 4 "Risk Factors" of the Company's 2016 Registration Document (document de référence) filed with the French Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) on November 29, 2017 under number D.17-1084.
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Contacts:
STENTYS
André Lerebours
CFO
Tel.: +33 (0)1 44 53 99 42
investor@stentys.com
NewCap
Investor Relations Strategic Communications
Dusan Oresansky Alexia Faure
Tel.: +33 (0)1 44 71 94 92
stentys@newcap.eu