Sweden's Biovitrum launches IPO

10 September 2006

In what is seen as the first significant biotechnology flotation since the market downturn in the spring, Swedish company Biovitrum has announced a listing on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, with an initial public offering of 6.7 million shares. This equates to 15% of shares and votes outstanding in the privately-held group. The sale of the shares will be from existing investors, including Nordic Capital and MPM Capital.

Biovitrum has set a timetable of September 4 to 11 for institutional book-building, with the announcement of an offering price on September 15. Meantime, the UK's Financial Times speculates that this will be at 105 Swedish kronor per share and notes that, as the firm will not be raising any new money, it will have a market capitalization of around 5.0 billion kronor ($691.0 million). The newspaper also suggests that Biovitrum's move could be a signal that others in the biotechnology sector may now revive shelved IPO plans.

The company, which was spun-out from Pharmacia in 2001, reported total turnover for the first six months of 2006 of 708.0 million kronor, compared with 937.0 million kronor for the whole of 2005. The largest part of this comes from its ReFacto manufacturing deal with US drug major Wyeth, which produced revenues of 339.0 million kronor for the first half of this year. Apart from its contract manufacturing, Biovitrum carries out contract development and focuses on drugs for the treatment of obesity, diabetes, inflammation and blood diseases, as well as a number of defined niche indications.

This article is accessible to registered users, to continue reading please register for free.  A free trial will give you access to exclusive features, interviews, round-ups and commentary from the sharpest minds in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology space for a week. If you are already a registered user please login. If your trial has come to an end, you can subscribe here.

Login to your account

Become a subscriber

 

£820

Or £77 per month

Subscribe Now
  • Unfettered access to industry-leading news, commentary and analysis in pharma and biotech.
  • Updates from clinical trials, conferences, M&A, licensing, financing, regulation, patents & legal, executive appointments, commercial strategy and financial results.
  • Daily roundup of key events in pharma and biotech.
  • Monthly in-depth briefings on Boardroom appointments and M&A news.
  • Choose from a cost-effective annual package or a flexible monthly subscription
The Pharma Letter is an extremely useful and valuable Life Sciences service that brings together a daily update on performance people and products. It’s part of the key information for keeping me informed

Chairman, Sanofi Aventis UK





Companies featured in this story

More ones to watch >


Today's issue

Company Spotlight