Brussels, 10 July 2014 – arGEN-X, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of human monoclonal antibodies, today celebrated its admission to listing on the regulated market of Euronext Brussels.
arGEN-X focuses on the discovery and development of human antibodies using its proprietary SIMPLE Antibody (TM) platform. The platform generates a limitless source of extremely high quality human antibodies that modulate the function of disease targets, including complex receptors and highly conserved targets, that are not possible to generate with other antibody technologies. The Lead antibodies generated are further differentiated through enhancement of their cell killing properties (Potelligent® technology) and circulation time in the body (NHance™ technology). arGEN-X’s portfolio consists of novel programs addressing oncology, autoimmune and inflammation indications.
The IPO offer price of arGEN-X (ticker code: ARGX) on Euronext Brussels was at €8.50 per share. arGEN-X issued 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, was 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.
“We are delighted to welcome arGEN-X to Euronext Brussels. arGEN-X’s listing will give it access to Europe’s largest pool of liquidity and will substantially raise its visibility with national and international investors. We look forward to a long-standing partnership with the company and its shareholders,” declared Vincent Van Dessel, CEO of Euronext Brussels.
“The successful IPO of arGEN-X confirms the leading status of Euronext as Europe’s number 1 venue for life sciences companies, in terms of operations and money raised,” said Alain Baetens, Head of Listings of Euronext Brussels. “We are particularly proud of the biotech franchise listed on Euronext Brussels, representing in total over € 1.7 billion of market capitalization. It is of the utmost importance that companies such as arGEN-X can access the financial markets in order to valorise the innovative activities they develop. arGEN-X will benefit from Euronext’s wide range of commercial services and a broad investor reach through a deep pool of liquidity.”
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.”
To celebrate the listing, Tim van Hauwermeiren, CEO of arGEN-X, together with co-founders Torsten Dreier and Hans de Haard, rang the bell to open trading on Euronext’s European markets. They were accompanied by Vincent Van Dessel, CEO of Euronext Brussels, and Alain Baetens, Head of Listings of Euronext Brussels.
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.