Clifford Chance advised Highbridge Capital Management, LLC and Whitebox Advisors, LLC on the negotiation of a EUR 100m senior secured convertible facility for Belgian biotech company Mithra Pharmaceuticals.
Mithra Pharmaceuticals develops pharmaceutical products specially focused on women’s health. The transaction provides Mithra Pharmaceuticals, which is listed on Euronext Brussels, with liquidity to pursue an out-license partnership for Donesta, its key pipeline product, and to repurchase certain outstanding convertible bonds. The facility consists of three tranches and is secured by pledges on the assets and IP related to Mithra Pharmaceuticals’ key products and 50% of its shares in Australian listed company Mayne Pharma. The loans under the facility are convertible into new shares of Mithra Pharmaceuticals, either at the option of the lenders or at the option of Mithra Pharmaceuticals itself.
The Clifford Chance team was led from Brussels by Corporate partner Niek De Pauw and Global Financial Markets counsel Wim Aerts, together with associates Alexander Tanguy, Gillis Waelkens and Laurent Robert. Partner Alexandre Ooms and associate Thomas Linard de Guertechin advised on the tax aspects. In Warsaw, Global Financial Markets lawyer Mateusz Chmura assisted as part of the Continental Europe Resource Management initiative. The team also included Amsterdam senior counsel Jaap Tempelman and associate Andrei Mikes, who advised on the IP aspects, including the milestones. Partners Mark Gillgren and Jacob Kahwaji, counsel Cameron Reeves and associates Kate Durham, Brianna Harcus, Nicholas Henneberry advised on the Australian security from Perth and Sydney.
