Cytopia and Other Progen Shareholders Maintain Call f...( MELBOURNE Australia Feb. 9 /- ...)

MELBOURNE, Australia, Feb. 9 /PRNewswire/ --

• Shareholders continue to support choice of cash back option and new Progen board
• Call by over 18% of Progen shareholders to combine general meetings
• Significant funding shortfall identified in the Progen merger proposal

Shareholders' Requisition

Late last week Progen Pharmaceuticals Limited (ASX: PGL) responded to the requisitioning of a general meeting by Cytopia Limited (ASX: CYT) and 14 other Progen shareholders and have questioned the validity of the requisition. The proposed resolutions for that meeting ("choice resolutions") seek to achieve two outcomes:

• A full share buyback offered to all Progen shareholders
• Removal of the current board and appointment of three new independent directors

The Progen board appears committed to its merger proposal with Avexa Limited (ASX: AVX) and a limited share buyback, to the exclusion of other shareholder proposals. Under the proposed merger, shareholders would effectively become investors in an HIV company with long and costly funding requirements in HIV drug candidate Apricitabine (ATC).

The shareholder proposal offers the choice of either staying as investors in a cancer focused biotech company or redeeming the cash backing of their shares, subject to available net cash reserves.

Under the resolutions that have been put forward to Progen by shareholders, no merger resolution has been proposed, nor are the appointments of the three new director candidates conditional on a merger going forward. These directors seek appointment on a declared platform of considering a merger between Cytopia and Progen but such a merger could only occur once the share buyback has been carried out, remaining net assets are determin
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