NanoViricides, Inc. (OTC BB: NNVC) (the "Company"), announced today that it has retired the remainder of the Series C Convertible Preferred Stock previously purchased by Seaside 88, LP ("Seaside"), with a cash payment. This transaction was completed by a mutual agreement between Seaside and the Company.
The Company continues to hold approximately $18M of cash plus prepaid expenses in hand after this transaction. The Company believes that these funds are sufficient for more than two years of operating expenses. The Company also believes that the current cash position is sufficient for advancing its anti-influenza drug candidate into initial human clinical trials.
As previously reported, the Company recently sold $6M of its Series B Convertible Debentures to three family investment offices and a charitable foundation, all of whom have been long term investors in and supporters of the Company. As such the Company has attained a strong financial position. With this additional liquidity, the Company's Board of Directors determined that retirement of the Convertible Preferred Series C Stock was in the best interests of the Company's shareholders and initiated a discussion of a possible redemption with Seaside. A part of the funds obtained in the sale of the Series B Convertible Debentures were utilized to retire the Series C shares.
"We have been very happy with the strong financial support that Seaside has provided to the Company," said Anil R. Diwan, PhD, Chairman of the Company, adding, "Seaside has invested a total of $25M into the Company over the past few years. Their funding has allowed us to focus on drug development without any fund-raising distractions. We have been able to advance our influenza drug pipeline with the use of this financing. Further, we have been able to obtain sufficient capital to fund our upcoming studies through IND filing and initial human clinical trials."
Seaside had purchased the said Series C Preferred Convertible Stock and the Company had received the final tranche of $2.5M from Seaside on December 21, 2012, which completed the total of a $5M financing. This raise, and the receipt of the initial $2.5M tranche, was previously announced on June 29, 2012. According to this agreement, Seaside converted a number of preferred Series C shares into common stock every two weeks, based on a formula that employed the average dollar volume of the Company's common stock traded in the previous two weeks, as previously described.
On February 26, 2013, the Company entered into a letter agreement with Seaside whereby the Company agreed to fully retire the remaining, unconverted 1,825.744 shares of its Series C Convertible Preferred Stock sold to Seaside on June 26, 2012. The total price paid by the Company for the retirement of the Series C Preferred Stock was $2,014,921.41. This amount included accrued preferred dividends of $6,002.45 and a 10% redemption premium. The redemption and cancellation of the Series C shares was completed by a mutual agreement between Seaside and the Company and included the termination of the Securities Purchase Agreement with Seaside 88, LP dated June 26, 2012 and the release from all obligations of the Company and Seaside. Midtown Partners & Co., LLC, acted as the intermediary in this agreement. No fees or commissions were accrued or paid to any party.
A call for robust H5N1 influenza preparedness and response