Deals and Financings

BeiGene (NSDQ: BGNE), a Beijing clinical-stage novel drug company, raised $158.4 million in its US IPO that showed strong interest (see story). The company priced the offering at the top of the expected range — $24 per share — and increased its size from 5.5 million ADSs to 6.6 million. In its first day of trading, the company’s stock rose $4.62 to $28.62, a 19% increase. The transaction is especially impressive in view of the early-2016 stock market turmoil, which prevented any companies from completing IPOs in the US during the month of January. 

Sinovac Biotech (NSDQ: SVA), a Beijing vaccine company, received a privatization offer from management that values the company at $345 million. The offer is priced at $6.18 per share, a 23% premium to Sinovac’s previous closing price of $5.02 (see story). 

Only a few days later, a consortium of outside investors and pharmas topped management’s offer for Sinovac with a $7 per share bid (see story). The outside group’s offer is 13% higher than management’s and values Sinovac at $390 million. Sinovac reported only $65 million in revenues and a small loss over the previous 12 months. EBITDA was $10 million. 

Cellular Biomedicine (NSDQ: CBMG), a US-China biopharma, announced a $43 million investment from Wuhan Dangdai Science & Technology Industries (see story). Dangdai acquired 2.27 million shares of CBMG’s stock at a price of $19 each, a 19.4% stake in the company. CBMG is developing two technologies: immuno-oncology therapies including cancer vaccines, CAR-T and PD-1 technologies; and stem cell treatments for joint and autoimmune diseases. CBMG is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, and operates an R&D facility in Wuxi and a manufacturing plant in Shanghai. 

Phagelux, a Shanghai company developing bacteriophages as an alternative to antibiotics, raised an undisclosed amount of capital from Fosun 47Pharma (SH: 600196, HK: 02196) (see story).