Excalibur Celebrates PIramed Sale With 'Substantial Cash Return' to Investors

GLASGOW, Scotland, April 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Excalibur, the new international investment house launched by Sir Christopher Evans, today (Tuesday) welcomed the sale of PIramed to Roche.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080415/301189 )

The sale of PIramed to Roche for $185 million means a 'very substantial cash return' to investors in Merlin III, the investment fund created by Sir Christopher five years ago.

Merlin Biosciences were co-founding investors in PIramed at the outset in 2003 with JP Morgan. Merlin, with the founders of the company, also selected the CEO, the management team, built the board of directors and continued to provide ongoing funding and strategic advice to the company.

Sir Christopher Evans said: "The sale is terrific news for everyone who has been associated with PIramed since the early days. It is complete vindication of the founders' vision and also the flawless execution of a scientific, management and investment plan that Merlin and JP Morgan stuck to from the outset. We are delighted to have been involved from day one and at Excalibur we are pleased to be delivering to investors in our Merlin Fund III such a substantial return on their investment."

Notes to Editors:

Excalibur has been founded by Professor Sir Christopher Evans and is a major new development of the original Merlin Biosciences business. Merchant Ventures, a specialist financial services group, was acquired to create Excalibur.

Excalibur is following the successful investment strategy of Merlin's Fund III which has focused more broadly on healthcare and medical science investments and is already delivering significant returns to investors with five more years to run.

The three existing Merlin investment funds operate under their original titles within the Excalibur group.

Key investors and stakeholders in Excalibur besides Sir Chris include Sir Tom Hunter's West Coast Capital, Professor Jeremy Stone, chairman of Merchant Ventures, and Lloyds TSB.

SOURCE Excalibur