Bryan, Garnier & Co acts as Placement Agent for Nicox €27m Private Placement (PIPE)
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Paris, March 6th, 2015 – Bryan, Garnier & Co, the pan-European investment bank for growth companies, announces the successful private placement of 15 million new shares to specific categories of investors of Nicox for an amount of €27m. Bryan, Garnier & Co acted as Placement Agent alongside Guggenheim Securities, LLC and Needham & Company, LLC.
Nicox S.A. (Euronext Paris: COX), the international ophthalmic company, today announced a reserved capital increase of ordinary shares of the company to specific categories of investors. The proceeds from the financing will be used to finance Nicox’s growth strategy to become a leading global speciality ophthalmic company, through advancing its late-stage pipeline of two pre-NDA1 (United States) and two pre-MAA2 (Europe) products and supporting its commercial activities. The gross proceeds of the financing are approximately €27 million, for a total of 15 million new shares.
New institutional investors specialized in life sciences have participated in this financing, strengthening the shareholding structure. Overall, approximately 72% of the new investors are from the United States and 28% from Europe.
The share capital increase strengthens Nicox’s net cash balance to approximately €48 million as of the closing date.
The net proceeds from the sale of the Shares are intended to provide additional resources to the company to finance its strategy, in particular:
– Working capital and general corporate purposes,
– Clinical development and regulatory filings related to pipeline candidates,
– Strengthening the company’s commercial organization in Europe and the United States.
Michele Garufi, CEO of Nicox, said: “Bryan, Garnier & Co has been a true partner for us throughout this private placement process. As a result of the strong commitment of Bryan, Garnier & Co, Nicox is welcoming several anchor and sophisticated investors.”
Cédric Moreau, Director ECM Healthcare, added: “This PIPE transaction is a great achievement as we aim to accompany our clients in their various corporate finance needs. This successful and technical transaction confirms our expertise in the healthcare and biotech space as well as our ability to bookrun complex cross-border transactions. Also, this large placement highlights that investors strongly believe in Nicox and its ophthalmic portfolio, particularly the potential blockbuster Vesneo to be launched in the US glaucoma market in 2016”
Hervé Ronin, Partner, Healtchare: «This transaction illustrates again Bryan, Garnier & Co’s unique ability to support European healthcare growth companies, in a variety of situations, on both European and US markets. In addition to this new PIPE, Bryan, Garnier & Co led in the recent weeks a € 32m PIPE for Cardio3, a €30m PIPE for Erytech Pharma, and led the IPOs of Bone Therapeutics (€37m) and Genomic Vision (€23m) on Euronext. Bryan, Garnier & Co was also joint lead book-runner of the $133m IPO of DBV Technologies on NASDAQ, as well as for the $86m IPO of LDR and acted as Co-manager on its $114m follow-on on NASDAQ. In H1 2014, Bryan, Garnier & Co led the largest private placement for a Healthcare company in Europe, raising €100m for Merieux Nutrisciences.”
For more information, please contact:
Hervé Ronin
Partner – Healthcare Corporate Finance
hronin@bryangarnier.com | + 33 156687522
Cédric Moreau
Director – Healthcare Equity Capital Markets
cmoreau@bryangarnier.com | + 33 156687565
Christian Finan
Director – Equity Capital Markets
cfinan@bryangarnier.com | + 33 156687530
Jean de Pracomtal
Senior Analyst – Healthcare
jdepracomtal@bryangarnier.com | + 33 156687538
About Nicox
Nicox (Bloomberg: COX:FP, Reuters: NCOX.PA) is an international commercial-stage company focused on the ophthalmic market. With a heritage of innovative R&D, business development and marketing expertise, we are building a diversified portfolio of ophthalmic products that can help people to enhance their sight. Nicox’s advanced pipeline features two pre-NDA candidates (Vesneo™ for glaucoma, partnered with Bausch + Lomb / Valeant and AC-170 for allergic conjunctivitis) as well as two pre-MAA candidates (AzaSite® for bacterial conjunctivitis and BromSite™ for pain and inflammation after cataract surgery). The Group operates directly in six countries, including the United States. It has proprietary commercial operations in Europe’s five largest markets complemented by an expanding international network of distributors. Nicox is headquartered in France and has more than 120 staff worldwide. It is listed on Euronext Paris (Category B: Mid Caps) and is part of the CAC Healthcare, CAC Pharma & Bio and Next 150 indexes.