VC-backed Cardio3 announces launch of €28.4m IPO

Ellie Pullen
21 June 2013

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Cardio3 Biosciences, a Belgian pharmaceutical company backed by a number of venture capital investors, has launched the subscription period of its IPO.

The IPO will comprise 1.5 million new shares priced at €16.65-19 per unit. The offer consists only of new shares and does not include any shares currently held by the company's venture capital backers. The flotation could raise up to €28.4m, subject to the full subscription of a 15% over-allotment option.

Two of Cardio3's "long term" state-owned backers, the Regional Investment Company of Wallona (SRIW) and PMV, have pledged to purchase a combined total of €13.95m's worth of shares. SRIW will buy a number of shares equivalent to €4.45m, while PMV will follow suit with a €9.5m commitment.

Cardio3 is currently backed by Hunza Ventures via its Hunza Ventures II fund, Life Sciences Research Partners via its Sofia BVBA vehicle, Tolefi, Umbrella Investments, Avion and SRIW. Private investors collectively own a 45% stake in the company.

Last month the company raised €19m from existing backers in a new funding round. The round comprised a fresh equity ticket of €7m alongside the conversion of €12m in existing convertible loans.

The funding reaped from the IPO will allow Cardio3 to proceed with the phase III stage of its stem cell therapy C-Cure, taking the product into its international clinical trials. The company also hopes to use the fresh financing to obtain authorisation for the initiation of the subsequent phase for the product.

Cardio3 has appointed Kempen & Co as sole global coordinator for the IPO, as well as joint bookrunner alongside Invest Securities. Portzamparc has been mandated as selling agent.

Trading of Cardio3 shares is expected to begin on 5 July on the NYSE Euronext Brussels and NYSE Euronext Paris and cease on 9 July.

Company
Founded in 2004, Cardio3 is headquartered in Mont-Saint-Guibert in Belgium. The company develops regenerative and protective therapies for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. The therapies are designed to protect the muscular tissue of the heart from injury, reconstruct damaged heart tissue and reduce the volume of scar tissue.

Its lead product, C-Cure, is a form of stem cell therapy designed to address heart failure. The aim of the product is to reprogramme a patient's own bone marrow cells into cardiopoietic cells in a process called cardiopoiesis. The new cardiac progenitor cells behave like the cells lost to heart disease and could therefore repair damaged muscular heart tissue. The cardiopoietic cells are injected into the heart through a C-Cath, an injection catheter developed by Cardio3.

People
Chairman Michel Lussier and non-executive director William Wijns are co-founders of Cardio3, while Christian Homsy is the company's CEO.