Amarantus Bioscience Holdings Inc (OTCMKTS:AMBS) Hoping To Recover

Amarantus Bioscience Holdings Inc (OTCMKTS:AMBS) has been on a steady downtrend. Toxic financings have lead to dilution and taken existing shareholders to the cleaners. A series of positive press releases were still not enough to turn things around. Now that shares have bounced off the lows, are better days ahead?In February, AMBS received an Intent to Grant a Patent notice from the European Patent Officer for the Mesencephalilc Astrocyte-derived Neurotrophic Factor (MANF) method of use patent application entitled "Method of Treatment for Retinal Disorders". Amarantus expects the patent to issue later in 2016, adding additional key elements to our strong barrier-to-entry strategy for this potentially breakthrough technology targeting rare ophthalmological disorders.In March, AMBS announced a deal with Avant Diagnostics Inc and Theranostics Health Inc. Under the terms of the LOI, Avant is to acquire Theranostics, adding key CLIA laboratory and intellectual property capabilities to Avant's previously announced letter of intent to merge with Amarantus Diagnostics (collectively, the "Transactions"). THI currently generates over $1.5M in services revenue from some of the world's leading biopharmaceutical companies, including 7 of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies by revenue. Avant shall issue to THI 25 million shares of its common stock upon the closing. Amarantus BioScience has provided a convertible note of $400,000 to THI to facilitate the transaction that will be assumed by Avant upon closing of the transactions. As previously disclosed, Avant plans to issue 80 million shares of its common stock to Amarantus Biosciences upon completion of its merger with Amarantus Diagnostics. The Transactions are expected to close in the first half of 2016.There's no doubt or denying the science behind AMBS. The problem with AMBS is that the company turned to toxic debt to fund its operations. In February, AMBS closed a $3M investment from an institutional investor. Under the terms of the agreement, the investor will be issued $3.3M worth of Series H Convertible Preferred Stock (including 10% original issue discount) from the Company and five year warrants exercisable for 13,200,000 shares of common stock at $0.40 per share. It is expected that the net proceeds will be used to repurchase part of the Series H Preferred from the Company's two largest institutional investors, for preparations towards the initiation of the Phase 2 clinical study of Engineered Skin Substitute (ESS) for the treatment of severe burns in collaboration with the US Army, and for general working capital purposes. The largest holders of the Series H Convertible Preferred Stock agreed to certain trading restrictions as part of the transaction.On March 1, 2016, Amarantus BioScience Holdings, Inc. (the "Company") filed an amendment to its Series E Preferred Stock Certificate of Designations with the State of Nevada providing that none of the Series E Preferred Stock may be converted until March 31, 2016, except for those conversions submitted to the Company during the week of February 22., 2016 to February 26, 2016.Last month, AMBS cancelled cancelled the special meeting of shareholders scheduled for March 29, 2016. AMBS still intends to seek the approval of its shareholders for the increase in its authorized common stock as part of its annual meeting of stockholders to be held in the summer of this year. In its filing with the SEC, AMBS said:

In addition, the Company and certain of its investors agreed to a leak-out agreement dated February 19, 2016 pursuant to which the investors agreed to certain trading restrictions with respect to its holdings of preferred stock and convertible notes of the Company until the earlier of April 30, 2016 or when a stockholder vote on whether to increase the Company's authorized common stock to 500,000,000 share is held.

Currently trading with a market cap of $1.8 million, AMBS looks set to continue diluting existing shareholders. The recent uptick in shares looks to be shorts covering. The best bet for shareholders would be a sale of the company and its technology. We will be updating Insider Financial as soon as we know more. For continuing coverage on AMBS, sign up for our free newsletter today and get our next hot stock pick!Disclosure: We have no position in AMBS and have not been compensated for this article.