mchen@heraldsun.com; 419-6636
DURHAM -- Oxygen Biotherapeutics Inc.'s 1-for-15 reverse stock split took effect Monday morning, positioning the company for listing on a major stock exchange.
Oxygen's stocks will be moved to either the NASDAQ or the New York Stock Exchange from the over-the-counter bulletin board, according to company President Chris Stern.
Oxygen's shares are now trading under a new symbol, OXBT. The stock closed up 60 cents at $6.75. As of press time Monday evening, the company had not yet received word on which major exchange it would be traded.
Stern said Monday the stock split will make it easier to attract new investors and raise funds. The company posted a $33.2 million net loss for the 2008-09 fiscal year that ended April 30, attributing the loss in part to an increase of about $5 million in general and administrative expenses and a one-time charge of $24.9 million.
In July, it closed on a $20 million milestone-based financing agreement with the Vatea Fund, its primary investor.
The 1-for-15 verse split converted 15 shares of Oxygen's common stock into one new share, reducing the number of oustanding shares from nearly 294 million to about 19.6 million.
The company, originally based in Ohio, was founded in 2009 by Leland Clark Jr., considered the "Father of Biosensors" and inventor of the heart-lung machine.
Clark also invented Oxycyte, an oxygen carrier that's designed to enhance oxygen delivery to damaged tissues. The compound is at the heart of Oxygen Biotherapeutics' business. Oxycyte molecules are about a fiftieth the size of red blood cells and able to flow into small capillaries and around damaged tissue.
Oxygen moved its headquarters to Durham from Costa Mesa, Calif., in July and currently employs 22 people. Stern said the funds that could be raised by moving to a major exchange could attract new funds to feed research and development.
"We are a company that has four product pillars and every single one of them is actually moving so fast that we believe that moving to a market with greater liquidity and greater exposure, this is just the right time to do it," Stern said.
Some of the company products based on Oxycyte are Dermacyte, a skin gel, Wundecyte, a gel for treating wounds, burns and acne, Vitavent, emergency oxygen treatment for victims of heart attacks and strokes.
The reverse split boosted Oxygen's share price up to major stock listing levels. Listing requirements for the major exchanges include a minimum share price, Stern wrote on his blog in September. For the New York Stock Exchange, for instance, the minimum price is $3.
"Without a stock split, we would have to wait until the stock price increased on its own to a high enough level to qualify for a move," Stern wrote. "But there is no way to know when or even if that would happen."
"Having our shares listed on a major exchange will give our stock visibility to a broad range of potential investors who cannot or will not consider investing in a penny stock," Stern wrote.
