THIS ANNOUNCEMENT
CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION FOR THE PURPOSE OF ARTICLE 7 OF THE
MARKET ABUSE REGULATION (EU) NO.596/2014
Syncona
Limited
Update on
Nightstar proposed NASDAQ IPO
15 September 2017
Syncona Ltd (“Syncona”), a leading healthcare company focused on
investing in and building global leaders in life science, today
notes that its portfolio company NightstaRx Limited (which has been
reorganised as Nightstar Therapeutics plc) (“Nightstar”) has filed
an amended Form F-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission in respect of its proposed initial public offering
(“IPO”) in the United States of
its American Depositary Shares (“ADSs”) representing ordinary
shares (available on the SEC’s EDGAR database).
The amended Form F-1 filing states an expected pricing range for
the proposed IPO of US$13.00 –
$15.00 per ADS, with each ADS
representing one ordinary share. This would represent an increase
in value of Syncona’s current shareholding in Nightstar (compared
to the 31 July 2017 sterling holding
value) of £41.5 – £58.3 million[1] (6.3p-8.8p1 per
Syncona share).
Syncona has indicated an interest in purchasing ADSs in the IPO,
subject to agreement with the underwriters. The proposed maximum
aggregate offering amount specified in the filing is US$92.46 million, which assumes that the public
offering price is at the top of the range and includes the 15%
option to that is proposed to be granted to the underwriters to
cover over-allotments..
A further announcement will be made in due course.
This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the
solicitation of an offer to buy securities, and shall not
constitute an offer, solicitation or sale in any jurisdiction in
which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to
registration or qualification under the securities laws of that
jurisdiction.
The securities referred to in this release are to be offered
only by means of a prospectus. When available, copies of the
preliminary prospectus can be obtained from Jefferies LLC,
Attention: Equity Syndicate Prospectus Department, 520 Madison
Avenue, 2nd Floor, New York, NY
10022, or by telephone at (877) 547-6340, or by email at
Prospectus_Department@Jefferies.com; Leerink Partners LLC,
Attention: Syndicate Department, One Federal Street, 37th Floor,
Boston, MA 02110, or by telephone
at (800) 808-7525 ext. 6132, or by email at Syndicate@Leerink.com;
or BMO Capital Markets Corp., Attention: Equity Syndicate
Department, 3 Times Square, New York,
NY 10036, or by telephone at (800) 414-3627, or by email at
bmoprospectus@bmo.com.
[ENDS]
Enquiries
Syncona Ltd
Siobhan Weaver
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7611 2031
Tulchan Communications
Martin Robinson
Tel: +44 (0) 207 353 4200
About Syncona:
Syncona is a leading FTSE250 healthcare company focused on
investing in and building global leaders in life science. Our
vision is to deliver transformational treatments to patients in
truly innovative areas of healthcare while generating superior
returns for shareholders. Our current investment portfolio consists
of seven high quality companies in life science and a leading range
of fund investments. We seek to partner with the best,
brightest and most ambitious minds in science to build globally
competitive businesses. We are established leaders in gene therapy,
cell therapy and advanced diagnostics, and focus on delivering
dramatic efficacy for patients in areas of high unmet need.
Our market leading funds portfolio seeks to generate superior
returns by investing in long only and alternative investment funds.
This represents a productively deployed evergreen funding base
which enables us to take a long term approach to investing in life
sciences as we target the best new opportunities and support our
existing portfolio companies to grow and succeed.
Syncona is aligned with two of the premium charitable funders in
UK science, the Wellcome Trust, original founder of Syncona, and
Cancer Research UK, both of which are significant shareholders in
our business. We make a donation of 0.3% of Net Asset Value
to a range of charities each year.
About Nightstar
Nightstar is a leading clinical-stage gene therapy company
focused on developing and commercializing novel one-time treatments
for patients suffering from rare inherited retinal diseases that
would otherwise progress to blindness.
[1] As at 14 September 2017
foreign exchange rates