CENTOGENE Announces Receipt of Nasdaq Notice of Delisting and Intention to Request a Hearing
Centogene N.V. (CNTG) received a staff determination letter from Nasdaq regarding potential delisting due to non-compliance with the minimum USD $15 million Market Value of Publicly Held Shares requirement. However, this will not immediately result in the suspension or delisting of the company's securities. The company plans to request a hearing before a Hearings Panel to address the issue.
The notification of potential delisting from Nasdaq due to non-compliance with the minimum Market Value of Publicly Held Shares (MVPHS) is a critical financial development for Centogene N.V. Delisting can lead to reduced liquidity and investor interest, potentially impacting the company's ability to raise capital. The MVPHS requirement ensures that there is adequate public interest and trading volume to justify a Nasdaq listing. Falling below this threshold suggests that the company may be facing challenges in maintaining investor confidence or could be experiencing broader market disinterest.
Investors should monitor the situation closely, as the company's ability to successfully appeal to the Hearings Panel will be crucial for its continued listing. The stay of suspension provides a window of opportunity for Centogene to address the issues leading to the staff determination. However, the underlying factors causing the non-compliance could be indicative of deeper financial or operational challenges. Therefore, investors should review the company's recent financial performance and market strategies to assess the potential risks and long-term implications of the delisting process.
The biotech sector, where Centogene operates, is highly volatile and sensitive to regulatory and market changes. The company's current predicament reflects the importance of maintaining regulatory standards to stay listed on major exchanges like Nasdaq. This event can serve as a barometer for investor sentiment towards the biotech industry, especially for companies specializing in rare and neurodegenerative diseases. A delisting could signify broader market trends, such as a shift in investment towards other sectors or a general risk-off approach among investors.
Market analysts should consider the potential impact of this development on peer companies within the biotech sector. It could trigger a reassessment of the valuation metrics and investment thresholds used to evaluate biotech firms. This reassessment could lead to a recalibration of market expectations and potentially influence the investment strategies of institutional and retail investors alike.
From a legal standpoint, the adherence to Nasdaq's Listing Rules is a fundamental requirement for companies wishing to maintain their listed status. The MVPHS is a regulatory instrument designed to maintain market integrity and protect investors by ensuring that only companies with a sufficient level of public interest and financial stability are traded on the exchange. The legal process of appealing a delisting involves presenting a plan to regain compliance, which the Hearings Panel will scrutinize.
It is essential to understand that while the legal appeal process offers a reprieve, it is not a guarantee of resolution. The company must not only convince the Panel of its potential for compliance but also must implement measures to achieve and sustain the required MVPHS. Failure to do so could result in long-term legal and financial consequences, including the potential for reduced shareholder value and increased difficulty in accessing public markets for funding.
02/28/2024 - 06:30 AM
Notice of Delisting Will Not Immediately Result in the Suspension or Delisting of the Company’s Securities
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and ROSTOCK, Germany and BERLIN, Feb. 28, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Centogene N.V. (Nasdaq: CNTG) (the “Company”), the essential life science partner for data-driven answers in rare and neurodegenerative diseases, today announced that the Company received a staff determination letter (the “Letter”) on Feb. 27, 2024, from the Listing Qualifications Department of The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC (“Nasdaq”) notifying the Company of the determination of the Nasdaq staff (the “Staff”) to delist the Company’s securities from The Nasdaq Global Market due to non-compliance with the minimum USD $15 million Market Value of Publicly Held Shares (“MVPHS”) requirement as set forth in Nasdaq Listing Rule 5450(b)(2)(C). The Staff Determination has no immediate effect and will not immediately result in the suspension of trading or delisting of the Company’s securities.
The Letter stated that unless the Company timely requests a hearing before a Hearings Panel (the “Panel”), the Company would be subject to delisting. Accordingly, the Company intends to timely request a hearing before the Panel. The hearing request will automatically stay any suspension or delisting action pending the hearing and the expiration of any additional extension period granted by the Panel following the hearing.
About CENTOGENE
CENTOGENE’s mission is to provide data-driven, life-changing answers to patients, physicians, and pharma companies for rare and neurodegenerative diseases. We integrate multiomic technologies with the CENTOGENE Biodatabank – providing dimensional analysis to guide the next generation of precision medicine. Our unique approach enables rapid and reliable diagnosis for patients, supports a more precise physician understanding of disease states, and accelerates and de-risks targeted pharma drug discovery, development, and commercialization.
Since our founding in 2006, CENTOGENE has been offering rapid and reliable diagnosis – building a network of approximately 30,000 active physicians. Our ISO, CAP, and CLIA certified multiomic reference laboratories in Germany utilize Phenomic, Genomic, Transcriptomic, Epigenomic, Proteomic, and Metabolomic datasets. This data is captured in our CENTOGENE Biodatabank, with over 800,000 patients represented from over 120 highly diverse countries, over 70% of whom are of non-European descent. To date, the CENTOGENE Biodatabank has contributed to generating novel insights for more than 285 peer-reviewed publications.
By translating our data and expertise into tangible insights, we have supported over 50 collaborations with pharma partners. Together, we accelerate and de-risk drug discovery, development, and commercialization in target and drug screening, clinical development, market access and expansion, as well as offering CENTOGENE Biodata Licenses and Insight Reports to enable a world healed of all rare and neurodegenerative diseases.
To discover more about our products, pipeline, and patient-driven purpose, visit www.centogene.com and follow us on LinkedIn .
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the U.S. federal securities laws. Statements contained herein that are not clearly historical in nature are forward-looking, and the words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continues,” “expect,” “estimate,” “intend,” “project,” “plan,” “is designed to,” “potential,” “predict,” “objective” and similar expressions and future or conditional verbs such as “will,” “would,” “should,” “could,” “might,” “can,” and “may,” or the negative of these are generally intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other important factors that may cause CENTOGENE’s actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by the forward- looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, the possibility that no strategic alternatives or trading market will be available to CENTOGENE, negative economic and geopolitical conditions and instability and volatility in the worldwide financial markets, possible changes in current and proposed legislation, regulations and governmental policies, pressures from increasing competition and consolidation in our industry, the expense and uncertainty of regulatory approval, including from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, our reliance on third parties and collaboration partners, including our ability to manage growth, execute our business strategy and enter into new client relationships, our dependency on the rare disease industry, our ability to manage international expansion, our reliance on key personnel, our reliance on intellectual property protection, fluctuations of our operating results due to the effect of exchange rates, our ability to streamline cash usage, our continued ongoing compliance with covenants linked to financial instruments, our requirement for additional financing, and our ability to continue as a going concern, or other factors. For further information on the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those expressed in these forward-looking statements, as well as risks relating to CENTOGENE’s business in general, see CENTOGENE’s risk factors set forth in CENTOGENE’s Form 20-F filed on May 16, 2023, with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and subsequent filings with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof, and CENTOGENE specifically disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
CONTACT
Melissa HallPress@centogene.com
Lennart StreibelIR@centogene.com
Centogene N.V. received a staff determination letter from Nasdaq due to non-compliance with the minimum USD $15 million Market Value of Publicly Held Shares requirement.
If Centogene N.V. does not request a hearing before a Hearings Panel, the company would be subject to delisting.
Centogene N.V. plans to timely request a hearing before the Panel to address the potential delisting issue.
