Israeli venture capital fund Peregrine Ventures has sold around 30 per cent of its holdings in medical devices company Neovasc Inc to the investment firm Fidelity Select Portfolios: Medical Equipment & Systems Portfolio, for USD12 million.
Peregrine sold two million of the 6.7 million Neovasc shares it held at USD6.00 per share. Approximately 4.7 million Neovasc shares, which comprise around 70 per cent of Peregrine’s original stake in Neovasc, are still held by Peregrine. These holdings are currently worth around USD‫27.5 million‫. Neovasc’s current market cap is around USD‫315 million.
Neovasc Inc is traded on NASDAQ under the ticker “NVCN” and on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) under the ticker “NVC”. The specialty medical device company develops, manufactures and markets products for the rapidly growing cardiovascular marketplace. Neovasc Inc, headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, was created through a merger led by Peregrine Ventures in July 2008. Two of Peregrine’s Israeli portfolio companies, Neovasc Medical Ltd. And B-Balloon Ltd., merged with Medical Ventures Corporation, a publicly-traded Canadian company which specializes in medical devices for the vascular and surgical market.
“The fact that, following this transaction we continue to hold around 70 per cent of our original holdings in Neovasc demonstrates our deep trust in the future of this promising company,” says Eyal Lifschitz, founding general partner of Peregrine Ventures. “Israel is a world leader in the development of medical devices especially in the cardiovascular field. Numerous groundbreaking technologies in those fields were developed in Israel by Israeli companies. These companies yield high value to both entrepreneurs and investors and generate extraordinary returns for investors all over the world.”
