Portland, oregon
September 30, 1999Agritope, Inc. today announced it has completed a $2.5
million private placement of 500,000 shares of Series A Preferred Stock at a price of $5
per share. The shares were purchased by Vilmorin
Clause & Cie, a leading worldwide vegetable seed company based in France, which
already owns 214,285 shares of Series A Preferred Stock. For every four shares of Series A
Stock purchased in the private placement, Vilmorin also received a warrant to purchase one
additional share of Series A Stock at a price of $7 per share at any time over the next
five years. Each share of Series A Stock is convertible into one share of Agritope Common
Stock.
Vilmorin intends to sell 150,000 shares of Series A Stock together with the related
warrants for
$750,000 to Hazera Quality Seeds Ltd. Hazera, an
Israeli seed company, has had a strategic alliance with Vilmorin since 1998. After
completion of the sale, Vilmorin will own 564,285 shares of Series A Stock, or 11.8% of
the outstanding capital stock of Agritope. Hazera's holdings will amount to 3.1% of
Agritope's outstanding capital stock.
"We will use the proceeds of the private placement to continue developing improved
varieties of
fruits and vegetables,'' said Adolph J. Ferro, president and chief executive officer of
Agritope. "As a world leader in its markets, Vilmorin has made a serious commitment
to research, spending almost 13% of its professional seed revenues on various research
initiatives aimed a developing improved plant varieties.''
"Vilmorin companies have been collaborating with Agritope scientists on a number of
projects over the past several years. We made our initial equity investment in 1998 when
Agritope first became a publicly traded company,'' said Pierre Lefebvre, chief executive
officer of Vilmorin and a member of the Agritope board of directors. ``Now that Agritope
is taking steps to expand its activities, we decided that the time was right to increase
our ownership position so that we will have a larger stake in its future.''
Agritope is an Oregon-based agricultural biotechnology company that develops improved
plant
products and provides technology to the agricultural industry. Its fruit and vegetable
division
specializes in the development of novel fruit, vegetable and flower varieties. Agrinomics
LLC, its
50%-owned joint venture with Rhone-Poulenc,
conducts a research, development and
commercialization program in the field of plant functional genomics. Vinifera, Inc., its
majority owned subsidiary, offers superior grapevine plants to the premium wine industry
together with disease testing and elimination services. Agritope shares closed September
29, 1999 at $2.
Founded in France in 1743, Vilmorin specializes in the worldwide breeding, production and
distribution of vegetable and flower seeds to the home garden and professional markets. It
is the
largest company in the world serving the home garden market and the second largest company
in the professional vegetable seed market. Its subsidiary, Harris Moran Seed Company, in
Modesto,
California, has been working with Agritope for several years to develop longer-lasting
cantaloupe and other improved varieties of produce. Vilmorin's shares are traded on the
second marche of the Paris Bourse.
Hazera Quality Seeds Ltd. breeds, develops, processes and markets hybrid vegetable and
field crop seeds. With more than 60% of its total seed production exported to over 50
countries worldwide, Hazera is Israel's leading breeder, producer and exporter of
vegetable and field crop seeds. Hazera recently completed an initial public offering of
its shares on the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange.
Company news release
N2143 |