Molecular Partners to raise CHF 96m after IPO delay

Ellie Pullen
04 November 2014

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Swiss biotech Molecular Partners, backed by several venture capital firms, is set to raise CHF 96m in its IPO on the Swiss Exchange, having resumed flotation plans after delaying the listing last month.

The IPO will give Molecular a market cap of CHF 485m (€402.3m). The company is expected to float tomorrow (5 November) under the ticker "MOLN".

The amount to be raised stands at far less than the original CHF 125m expected when the company originally announced its IPO plans.

Having announced its intention to launch at the end of September, Molecular then put its IPO on hold on 21 October, citing "adverse market conditions" as the reason. The company was meant to start trading publicly on the SIX Swiss Exchange on 22 October.

Molecular then resumed bookbuilding for its flotation yesterday (3 November) with revised transaction terms, citing support from Allergan and "other anchor investors" as its reason for resuming flotation plans.

The company fixed its IPO price at CHF 22.4 (€18.6) per share, while the number of shares offered stay the same as the original IPO plans at 4.4 million shares, comprising 4.307 million new shares and 93,000 existing shares.

The offer represents a free-float of 22.8% prior to any exercise of the overallotment option, which comprises 660,000 additional new shares, and up to 25.4% with the overallotment option being exercised.

JP Morgan was appointed sole global coordinator for the flotation, as well as joint bookrunner alongside UBS. Cowen & Company and Bank am Bellevue acted as co-managers.

Previous funding
In September 2007, Molecular raised CHF 18.5m in a series-A funding round. Investors included BB Biotech Ventures, Endeavour Vision and Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation.

In December 2009, Essex Woodlands Health Ventures led a CHF 46m series-B round alongside existing investors. Molecular approached Essex Woodlands directly for investment. The specialist investor used its eighth fund, which closed on $800m in 2009, to finance the deal.

Company
Founded in 2004 when it span out from University of Zurich, Molecular has developed designed ankyrin repeat proteins (DARPin), which are therapeutic proteins designed to either treat a single validated pathway as a mono-DARPin, or combine to form multi-DARPins that can bind to multiple targets.

The company claims this method can increase efficacy when targeting and addressing complex diseases such as cancer.

People
Christian Zahnd is the CEO of Molecular.