British biotechnology firm Huntingdon, which conducts tests on animals for drug firms, named its previously anonymous backer as family-owned US investment company Stephens Group, based in Little Rock, Arkansas.
It said it had successfully completed the re-financing of its current bank facilities and that Stephens Group owned 15.7 per cent of the company's issued equity share capital.
The company struck the deal with Stephens Group after it was given a deadline to repay a £22.6 million sterling loan to the Royal Bank of Scotland.
The Royal Bank of Scotland said it no longer had any financing relationship with the group after the refinancing deal.
At the time Huntingdon gave no details of the new agreement but said it had exhausted all other possible methods of financing and said if it had not reached the deal it would have had to call in the receivers.
Several investors have sold their stakes in Huntingdon over fears of bad publicity and the fire-bomb attacks and death threats experienced by some of its employees. Last week, top US bank Citibank said it had dropped links with the firm.
But animal activists vowed today to close the firm, taking their fight to the United States now that an American firm had been revealed as Huntingdon's backer.
"There is no question about it, we are going to fight on and close Huntingdon," Mr Greg Avery, spokesman for Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty told reporters.
Reuters