Alliance Pharma Acquires Cambridge Laboratories

Alliance Pharma has successfully raised £7.5m by way of a vendor share placing to part finance the initial cash element of the consideration for the acquisition. 28,846,154 new ordinary shares of 1 pence each in the capital of Alliance were placed with certain existing and new UK investors by Numis Securities at a placing price of 26 pence per share.

The balance of the initial cash element of the consideration for the acquisition of £2.7m, and an initial payment of £0.75m towards the value of inventory acquired at completion, were financed by way of an additional £4m term loan provided by Lloyds Banking Group.

Alliance Pharma expects to fund the deferred elements of the consideration and any deferred contingent consideration for the acquisition, as detailed in its announcement of 8 February 2010, through internal cash generation and its existing working capital facility, provided by Lloyds Banking Group, which has been increased from £5m to £6m.

The acquisition is expected to be significantly earnings enhancing to Alliance in the financial year ending 31 December 2010.

Alliance Pharma has also announced that Peter Jonathan Butterfield has been appointed to the board of the company. Mr Butterfield has been with Cambridge Laboratories since 2004, most recently as UK commercial manager. He is a board member of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) and is currently chairman of the ABPI Small Companies Forum.

Prior to joining Cambridge Laboratories, Mr Butterfield spent six years at SmithKline Beecham (now GlaxoSmithKline), where he acquired extensive sales and marketing knowledge.

John Dawson, chief executive of Alliance, said: “We are delighted to welcome Peter to Alliance. He brings with him extensive knowledge of the products acquired from Cambridge Laboratories which will be invaluable as we integrate the two businesses.”