Levon’s SciVac Deal Could Point to Further M&A Activity

Market Exclusive published an article that looks at Levon Resources Ltd.’s (TSX:LVN,OTCQX:LVNVF) recent announcement that it will be acquiring SciVac Ltd., a private company. The piece states that Dr. Phillip Frost, chairman and CEO of Opko Health Inc. (NYSE:OPK), became interested in making SciVac public last fall.

As quoted in the market news:

Opko has had some success taking stakes in biotech companies so far this year. Its recent 8% stake in Cocrystal Pharma (OTCBB:COCP) has jumped 100% since February. Cocrystal is its second largest investment behind private Russian biotech Pharmsynthez.

The news outlet also states that Opko’s move with SciVac may be a sign of things to come:

Dr. Frost’s latest move comes in the context of several other interesting stock movements that may tip off future deals in the making. In October last year, only one month after [Israeli financial magazine] Globes reported Frost’s interest in taking SciVac public, Levon acquired 35M shares, or 10% of Pershing Gold Corporation (OTCMKTS:PGLC) another one of Frost’s pet projects of which he has a 15% stake translating to 53.7M shares. Those 35M shares of PGLC will be moving to new entity Spinco, so speculators looking out for the next Frost-related deal should keep an eye on a possible merger between Spinco and Pershing. A similar deal was inked bewteen Pershing and Continental Resources Group in February 2013 where the latter was acquired by Pershing. Continental had a substantial stake in Pershing at the time.

Cocrystal, which is fairly similar to SciVac in that it is focusing on molecularly tailored vaccines, primarily hepatitis C. Cocrystal is also 22% owned by Frost through his investment trust as well as an 8% stake through Opko. Cocrystal has skyrocketed over 100% since February but lacking any obvious catalyst for doing so. Another possible move to watch then is for a deal between Levon, now SciVac, and Cocrystal, which itself was once BioZone, also an Opko investment that was merged into Cocrystal.

With Frost’s myriad of moves and deals over the last few years things can get admittedly confusing and make your head spin. The structure of these mergers, however, repeatedly seems to start with Opko at the base and then moves out from there. Opko itself has been on a nearly 100% tear since December. As for Cocrystal’s recent 100% move, it may have investors scratching their heads but connecting the dots here could point to the beginning stages of a Frost deal at some point between Cocrystal and SciVac as both specialize in hepatitis vaccines, as well as one between Spinco and Pershing.

Click here to read the full Market Exclusive report.