Street Talk

Pengana freezes fund redemptions as it braces for big Opthea loss

Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport

Updated Mar 27, 2025 – 5.57pm, first published at 11.55am

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The failure of Opthea’s much-heralded eye treatment has already caused considerable pain for investors. The ASX-listed biotech counted Phil King’s Regal Partners as its biggest shareholder, with a 30 per cent stake.

But there are plenty of others who are facing big losses. Opthea warned the failure of a late-stage trial of its OPT-302 treatment would trigger obligations to pay back development funding to the likes of The Carlyle Group, which would almost certainly render the company insolvent.

Sarah Thompson has co-edited Street Talk since 2009, specialising in private equity, investment banking, M&A and equity capital markets stories. Prior to that, she spent 10 years in London as a markets and M&A reporter at Bloomberg and Dow Jones.

Kanika Sood is a journalist based in Sydney who writes for the Street Talk column.

Emma Rapaport is a co-editor of the Street Talk column. Prior to that, she was a markets reporter at The Australian Financial Review.