Companies: ATD   

Asterand, which provides human tissue and related services to pharmaceutical groups, has placed £645,000 of shares with shareholder Chrysalis Ventures.

The fully listed company, which slashed its first-half loss from £970,000 to £53,000, placed the shares at 15p, a 25 per cent premium to their previous closing price, to ‘accelerate near-term growth’. The placing takes Chrysalis Ventures’ stake in Asterand from 11.1 to 15.1 per cent and, says Asterand chief executive officer Martyn Coombs, lifts the company’s total cash resources to £6.4m.

House broker Daniel Stewart sees a turnaround this year from a £1.5 million loss to a pre-tax profit of  £3.3 million. Highlighted by Growth Company Investor in August at a depressed 8.75p, the shares have rallied 57 per cent to 13.75p and could prove more resilient than many in the market.

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Asterand	LSE	£16.98m	15.00p	-0.25p
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Other company articles:
Asterand			18/11/2008
Asterand slashes interim loss			27/08/2008
Healthy prospects			02/06/2008