Challenger closes oversubscribed biotech fund
Challenger International has closed its new retail biotech fund oversubscribed with the fund exceeding the company’s target of $40 million.
Challenger International has closed its new retail biotech fund oversubscribed with the fund exceeding the company’s target of $40 million.
The BioTech Capital Limited fund is a pooled development fund, and according to fund director Harry Karelis has become the largest pure biotech fund in Australia.
He says the basic tenets of the fund made it a timely and attractive product in the Australian market which lead to the enthusiasm from investors for the fund.
“There has been a lot of enthusiasm of late in this sector. This fund is highly suit-able, and excisable for the investor,” he says.
“It can provide investors with diversified profiles so they are not putting all their eggs in the same basket. From our information, there is no other product out there in the market like this one, we have really hit a nerve.”
Karelis says the fund has achieved widespread support from brokers and financial planners in the retail sector, with institutions also making up the numbers of the 6,300 shareholders.
The fund will list on the ASX on the 24th August and Karelis says until this time the number of investments is undecided.
However, he says the group has been approached to partake in about 20 different deals and the due diligence process hyas begun.
The fund will focus on the areas of genomics, medical devices, bioinformatics and enabling technologies and may also launch a similar wholesale biotech fund in the near future.
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