Bioton has announced plans to issue of 8.5m shares to Prokom Investments, its largest shareholder, to finance a public tender for Singapore Sci-Gen. The issue price of PLN 10, constitutes a 25% discount to Friday’s closing price and was set, based on the last three months average traded price of PLN 9.66. As a result of the issue, the combined stake of entities controlled by Ryszard Krauze (Prokom Investments + Nihonswi) will increase from 55.7% to 59.7%. Bioton is currently increasing its stake in Sci-Gen from 26.5% to 44.7%, which would require a public tender for all remaining shares. The offer includes both an all-cash and cash/share alternatives and is estimated by the company to total PLN 85m. The Sci-Gen acquisition is the key to start Bioton’s expansion in China. The company wants to register its insulin by the end of 2006 and aims to build an insulin factory in China.