ABLYNX RAISES ¤75 MILLION IN SUCCESSFUL IPO - Largest ever biotech
IPO on Euronext Brussels
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION IN
OR INTO THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
6 November 2007
GHENT, Belgium - 6 November 2007 - Ablynx, the biopharmaceutical
company focused on the discovery and development of Nanobodies®,
announced today that it has successfully completed its initial public
offering (IPO) and will be listed as of tomorrow on Eurolist by
Euronext Brussels under the symbol "ABLX".
The IPO was priced at ¤7.00 per share. Pursuant to the offering,
10,714,285 new shares, equivalent to ¤75.00 million, will be issued
by Ablynx, and additionally, 1,607,142 over-allotment shares,
equivalent to ¤11.25 million will be allocated. If the over-allotment
option is exercised in full, the total amount of the capital increase
will amount to ¤86.25 million.
J.P. Morgan Securities Ltd. and KBC Securities NV acted as Joint
Global Coordinators and Joint Bookrunners, with Kempen & Co N.V. and
Piper Jaffray Ltd acting as Co-Managers to the offering.
Commenting on today's announcement, Dr Edwin Moses, Ablynx's Chairman
and Chief Executive Officer, said: "We are delighted to have
successfully completed our IPO and to have been able to secure the
interest of high quality institutional investors. I view this
positive outcome as a reflection of the strength of our Nanobody®
platform and pipeline and our investors' confidence in Ablynx's
growth prospects. We intend to use the funds raised to rapidly move
forward with our lead programme ALX-0081 currently in Phase I, and
quickly build a strong clinical pipeline with truly innovative
Nanobody-based therapeutics across multiple therapeutic areas where
there is a large unmet medical need, thus creating value for our
shareholders."
Offer highlights
- The final IPO price was set at ¤7.00 per share and applies to both
retail and institutional investors.
- The base offering was approximately one and a half times
subscribed.
- Retail investors will be allocated 10% of the total number of
allotted shares or 1,232,143 shares. Within the retail tranche,
¤300,000 in shares will be allotted on a preferential basis to the
Company's employees, consultants and independent directors. The
shares for retail investors will be allotted according to the
allocation table below. All these shares are new shares with
VVPR-strips.
