DOLLY the sheep firm PPL Therapeutics caved in to pressure from hedge funds and put itself up for sale, the latest example of a British scientific breakthrough ending up a disappointment.
Value investor and 21pc stakeholder Metage Capital was one of several funds demanding a return from PPL, under pressure since it failed to make a commercial success of the science that created Dolly. It abandoned the technology in April.
Having scrapped a joint venture with German giant Bayer, investors were not convinced by its one remaining development programme, a surgical glue that stops bleeding.
As pretax losses for the half-year widened to 13.5m from 6.4m, chief executive Geoff Cook and four fellow directors quit the board.
They will leave PPL ‘in due course’.
The sale, managed by KPMG, will raise a tiny fraction of PPL’s former 100m worth. The shares closed up 0.13p at 5.25p, valuing PPL at just 6m.
