Breda, the Netherlands / Ghent, Belgium, 8 July 2014 – arGEN-X N.V. (“arGEN-X”), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on creating and developing differentiated therapeutic antibodies for the treatment of cancer and severe autoimmune diseases, announces the successful completion of its Initial Public Offering, which was launched on 23 June 2014 (the “IPO” or the “Offering”). arGEN-X shares will be listed on Euronext Brussels and begin trading on an “if-and-when-issued-or-delivered” basis on Thursday 10 July 2014 under the symbol “ARGX”.
The Offering was priced at €8.50 per share (the “Offer Price”). arGEN-X will issue 4,705,882 new shares equivalent to €40 million. Additionally, an over-allotment option to subscribe to up to 470,589 additional new shares at the Offer Price, equivalent to €4 million, has been granted to cover over-allotments or short positions, if any. If the over-allotment option is exercised in full, the total amount of the capital increase will amount to €44 million. The approximate market capitalization of arGEN-X at listing will be €131.7 million. In connection with the pricing of the IPO, a pricing statement has been deposited with the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (Stichting Autoriteit Financiële Markten), which will be electronically available on the website of arGEN-X (www.argen-x.com) or on the website of Euronext Brussels. Printed copies are available at the registered office of arGEN-X.
The order book has been built with high-quality demand from corporate and institutional investors in Europe and the United States of America, as well as demand from Belgian retail investors. Among these investors, Shire purchased shares at the Offer Price for a total of €12 million representing 9.1% of the capital of arGEN-X (excluding the over-allotment option). In addition, certain existing investors purchased shares for a total of approximately €7.2 million at the Offer Price.
KBC Securities and Kempen & Co acted as Joint Global Coordinators and Joint Bookrunners, Petercam as Co-Lead Manager, and Wedbush PacGrow Life Sciences as Selling Agent.
Tim Van Hauwermeiren, CEO of arGEN-X, said: “The funds that we have raised through our successful IPO from investors in Europe and the US will enable arGEN-X to advance the clinical development of our differentiated therapeutic antibody candidates, ARGX-110, ARGX-111 and ARGX-113 in orphan diseases. This strategy is designed to yield clinical data demonstrating their therapeutic utility for treating cancer and severe autoimmune diseases, and this data will be leveraged to partner these therapeutic antibodies for development and commercialization across a number of major indications in these areas. The funds will also allow us to further develop and enhance our SIMPLE Antibody™ platform and suite of complementary antibody technologies on which our pipeline of differentiated therapeutic antibodies has been created. We believe that this approach will allow arGEN-X to become an important player in the fast growing therapeutic antibody market and to generate significant value for its shareholders in a timely and efficient manner.”
Offer Highlights
• The final Offer Price was set at €8.50 per share.
• As a result of the IPO, arGEN-X raised €40 million in gross proceeds. Together with the existing shares, the number of outstanding shares (excluding the over-allotment option) amounts to 15,496,387 representing a market capitalization at listing of approximately €131.7 million.
• Retail investors have been allocated 6.2% of the total number of allotted shares or 322,890 shares.
• KBC Securities acting on behalf of the Joint Global Coordinators and the Co-Lead Manager has been granted an over-allotment option by arGEN-X, exercisable from the first day of listing and until 30 calendar days thereafter. If the over-allotment option is exercised in full, the total amount of the capital increase will amount to €44 million.
• The shares have been listed and will begin trading on Euronext Brussels on 10 July 2014 on an “if-and-when-issued-or-delivered” basis under the symbol “ARGX”.
• Delivery and payment of the arGEN-X shares is expected to be made on 11 July 2014. The closing of the Offering and the delivery of the shares are subject to certain conditions and can be suspended or cancelled. Assuming closing of the Offering occurs on 11 July 2014, the shares will be listed unconditionally on Euronext Brussels as of that date.
• As part of the long-term strategic alliance between arGEN-X and Shire concluded on 30 May 2014, Shire purchased 1,411,764 new shares in the Offering at the Offer Price for an aggregate amount of €12 million representing 9.1% of the capital of arGEN-X (8.8% assuming the full exercise of the over-allotment option).
• Certain of arGEN-X’ existing shareholders purchased 848,182 new shares in the Offering at the Offer Price for an aggregate amount of approximately €7.2 million.
• The Company, its management team and the existing shareholders have agreed to a lock-up of 360 days, subject to customary conditions and exceptions.
About arGEN-X
arGEN-X is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on creating and developing differentiated therapeutic antibodies for the treatment of cancer and severe autoimmune diseases. arGEN-X has generated a pipeline of differentiated clinical and preclinical antibody candidates using its SIMPLE Antibody™ discovery platform. SIMPLE Antibody™ has a particular strength in addressing novel, complex disease targets that are difficult to access using established antibody technology platforms. Proprietary Fc engineering technologies (NHance® and ABDEG™) and POTELLIGENT® technology (licensed from BioWa, Inc.) further enhance the therapeutic properties of SIMPLE Antibody™ leads in terms of tissue penetration/residence time in the body, ability to clear disease targets or pathogenic antibodies and cell-killing potency through Antibody-Dependent Cell-mediated Cytotoxicity (ADCC), respectively. arGEN-X has leveraged its suite of antibody technologies in forging strategic collaborations with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to provide new approaches to diseases with unmet medical needs.
SIMPLE Antibody™, NHance® and ABDEG™ are trademarks of arGEN-X NV
POTELLIGENT® is a trademark of BioWa Inc.