Evolva completes Abunda acquisition

Reinach, Switzerland, 8 July 2011 – Evolva Holding SA (SIX: EVE), which is developing novel medicines and nutritional ingredients through synthetic biology, announced that it will complete the acquisition of Abunda Nutrition, Inc. (“Abunda”) today, after which it will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Evolva.

Evolva’s shareholders approved the capital increase required for the acquisition in the Annual General Meeting (“AGM”) of Evolva on 18 May 2011. As announced on 5 April 2011, the acquisition of Abunda requires an upfront investment of 25 million newly issued Evolva shares. This equals close to 18% of Evolva’s currently outstanding capital. SIX Swiss Exchange has cleared the Listing Prospectus related to the issue of the new Evolva shares so that the transaction could be executed.

The selling Abunda shareholders have agreed to submit the Evolva shares they will receive, to the Lock-up and Coordinated Sale mechanism. This structure was set up by Evolva’s core investors in December 2010 in order to facilitate the gradual release of Evolva’s lock-up and increase the stock’s free-float.

Evolva’s shareholders elected two new members for the Board of Directors in the AGM of 18 May 2011: Ganesh Kishore and Stuart Strathdee. The election was conditional upon the closing of the Abunda acquisition. Upon closing, the election of the two Board members will be confirmed. In addition, the CEO of Abunda, Simon Waddington, will join Evolva’s Group Management Team.

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• Press release in English
• Press release in German

About Evolva Holding SA

Evolva is an international, innovative synthetic biology company with a world-class research platform. Evolva strives to improve people’s lives by applying its technology and other resources to the discovery and development of new products and processes that benefit the health, well-being and financial economy of patients, consumers and partner companies around the world. Evolva uses biosynthetic and evolutionary technologies to artificially create and optimise small molecule compounds and their production routes. Our approach differs from that of the mainstream in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. We have discovery partnerships ongoing both in pharma and in nutrition. In addition we have a pipeline of promising compounds aimed at infectious and cardio-renal indications. For more information visit www.evolva.com.

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This press release contains specific forward-looking statements, e.g. statements including terms like believe, assume, expect or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may result in a substantial divergence between the actual results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and those explicitly or implicitly presumed in these statements. Against the background of these uncertainties readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The company assumes no responsibility to update forward-looking statements or to adapt them to future events or developments.