International law firm Clifford Chance has advised PolyPeptide Group AG (PolyPeptide) on US law matters relating to its successful initial public offering (IPO) and listing on the SIX Swiss Exchange. The offering was conducted as a public offering in Switzerland, a private placement in the United States in reliance on Rule 144A under the US Securities Act, as well as private placements in certain other jurisdictions.
The offering consisted of 11,521,740 shares, comprising 3,508,772 new shares and 8,396,740 existing shares. In addition, the selling shareholder has granted the Joint Global Coordinators an over-allotment option of up to 1,728,261 existing shares. The issue price amounted to CHF 64.00 per share, implying a market capitalization of CHF 2.12 billion, with a free float of up to 40% if the over-allotment option is exercised in full. The IPO was multiple times oversubscribed given strong demand from investors across Switzerland and internationally.
PolyPeptide is a Contract Development & Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) focusing on proprietary and generic GMP-grade peptides used by pharmaceutical and biotech companies in approved pharmaceutical products, drugs in clinical development as well as in generic products. PolyPeptide has six GMP-certified facilities in Europe, the U.S. and India and manufactures around one-half of all currently-approved peptide drug substances.
Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley and BofA Securities acted as Joint Global Coordinators and Joint Bookrunners; Berenberg, Danske Bank and ZĆ¼rcher Kantonalbank acted as Joint Bookrunners.
The Clifford Chance team, advising PolyPeptide as US counsel on its IPO, comprised partner George Hacket (Frankfurt), counsel Laura Scaglioni (Milan) and associate Elizabeth van de Sande (Frankfurt; all Capital Markets). US tax advice was provided by partner Avrohom Gelber (New York).
Swiss law firm NKF (Niederer Kraft Frey Ltd) acted as counsel to PolyPeptide.
