MDS Inc. Announces Completion of Hemosol Transaction
03 Maggio 2004 - 3:51PM
PR Newswire (US)
MDS Inc. Announces Completion of Hemosol Transaction TORONTO, May 3
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- MDS Inc. (TSX: MDS, NYSE: MDZ) today
announced the completion of its reorganization transaction with
Hemosol. Under the terms of the transaction, MDS transferred its
Ontario lab business to Hemosol Inc. and substantially all of the
assets and liabilities of Hemosol Inc. were transferred to a new
company, Hemosol Corp., which will continue researching and
developing blood products. The transaction provided Hemosol's
business with approximately $16 million in cash and other
consideration and will allow MDS to benefit from Hemosol's unused
tax assets. MDS estimates the present value benefit of the
transaction to be approximately $55-60 million, which will be
realized over the next several years. "We are pleased to have
completed this transaction, which will provide Hemosol with cash
with which to continue the development of its blood products and
MDS with tax benefits for the next several years" said John Rogers,
President and CEO, MDS Inc. As part of the transaction, each
shareholder of Hemosol Inc. received one common share of Hemosol
Corp. and one Class A common share of LPBP Inc. (as Hemosol Inc.
was renamed) for each common share held immediately prior to the
effective time of the transaction. In addition, MDS received an
additional 38,322,390 Class A common shares and 11,134,648,627
Class B Non-Voting Shares of LPBP Inc. In replacement of its
warrants and rights to receive additional warrants to purchase
Hemosol Inc. common shares, MDS received warrants to purchase
5,500,000 Hemosol Corp. common shares and the right to receive, on
certain conditions, warrants to acquire an additional 2,000,000
Hemosol Corp. common shares. Following the transaction, MDS owns,
directly or indirectly, 6,549,897 Hemosol Corp. common shares
(representing approximately 11.7% of the issued Hemosol Corp.
common shares), which would increase to approximately 22% if all
7,500,000 warrants held by or issuable to MDS were exercised. MDS
also owns, directly or indirectly, 44,872,287 Class A common shares
(representing 47.5% of the issued Class A Common Shares) and all of
the Class B Non-Voting Shares, representing, in aggregate, 99.56%
of the equity shares of LPBP Inc. At MDS Inc., our more than 10,000
highly skilled people provide enabling products and services for
the development of drugs and the diagnosis and management of
disease. We focus on helping discover and test new drugs, assisting
doctors to diagnose and treat patients and preventing the spread of
disease. Find out more about MDS Inc. (TSX: MDS; NYSE: MDZ) at
http://www.mdsintl.com/ or by calling 1-888-MDS-7222, 24 hours a
day. DATASOURCE: MDS Inc. CONTACT: Sharon Mathers, Vice-President,
Investor Relations, MDS Inc., (416) 675-6777 ext. 2695
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