DLA Piper has advised the Active Ownership Group (AOC) on the subscription of all shares in Formycon AG issued as part of a capital increase. Formycon’s share capital will be increased by partially utilizing the approved capital from currently EUR10 million by EUR1 million to a total of EUR11 million by issuing 1 million new no-par value bearer shares, each with a notional value of EUR1 of the share capital, against cash contribution. The total inflow of funds amounts to EUR25,750,000.00 and corresponds to an issue price per share of EUR25.75.
Formycon is a leading, independent developer of high-quality biopharmaceutical medicines, especially biosimilars. The company focuses on treatments in ophthalmology, immunology and on other key chronic diseases, covering the entire value chain from technical development to the clinical phase III as well as the preparation of dossiers for marketing approval. The funds raised from the capital increase will be used primarily for the expansion and further development of the company’s own product pipeline. Strategically, the development of biosimilars remains the company’s focus. In addition to the already well advanced biosimilar projects FYB201 (biosimilar candidate for Ranibizumab), FYB202 (biosimilar candidate for Ustekinumab) and FYB 203 (biosimilar candidate for Aflibercept), the company has another very promising preclinical biosimilar project with FYB206 -Project in which important milestones have already been reached and value-generating intellectual property (IP) has been built up. In addition, Formycon is pursuing a promising approach in the development of novel antibody-based COVID-19 medicines. The transfer of this project into clinical trials is planned for next year.
AOC is an independent, owner-managed investment company that acquires significant shares in medium-sized, listed companies in the DACH region and Scandinavia. As a committed co-owner, AOC is actively committed to increasing shareholder value by implementing operational, strategic and structural improvements. Together with the management, AOC defines value-creating strategies and measures for this purpose. AOC supports the implementation of these strategies and measures by serving on supervisory and advisory boards as well as by providing new growth capital.
The DLA Piper team was led by partner Andreas FĂĽchsel (Private Equity/M&A, Frankfurt), who was assisted by senior associates Dr. med. Kokularajah Paheenthararajah (Patents/Life Sciences, Cologne) and Miray Kavruk (IPT) as well as associate Philipp Meyer (Private Equity/M&A, both Frankfurt).
