Tencent, Nikon, Amgen and Illumina all scored exits as the DNA sequencing provider's shares popped in the wake of its flotation.
Oxford Nanopore, the UK-based DNA sequencing technology developer backed by corporate investors Nikon, Tencent, Amgen and Illumina, went public yesterday in a $478m initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange.
The company issued 82.4 million shares priced at £4.25 ($5.81) each, securing a valuation of $4.7bn, while shareholders including commercialisation firm IP Group offloaded $238m worth of stock.
Software producer Oracle had already committed to being a cornerstone investor for the IPO, putting aside $205m last week. Oxford Nanopore’s shares soared 45% on the first day of trading and at time of publication its shares are trading at £6.26 each.
Founded in 2005, Oxford Nanopore provides DNA and RNA sequencing technology that allows users to generate analysis in real time. The technology has been applied to a wide range of products ranging from handheld devices to population-scale platforms.
The company had secured over $1bn in funding prior to the offering and was valued at $3.4bn as of a $270m round in May this year, when optical technology producer Nikon, IP Group, Temasek, Wellington Management and M&G Investment invested with unnamed existing backers.
Internet group Tencent, pharmaceutical firm Amgen, genomics technology provider Illumina and financial services firm China Construction Bank are all among Oxford Nanopore’s earlier backers, as are RPMI Railpen, International Holdings Company, GT Healthcare, Hostplus, Invesco Perpetual, Lansdowne Partners, Odey Asset Management, Top Technology Ventures and Amadeus Capital Partners.
IP Group remains the company’s largest shareholder, with a 10.3% stake post-IPO cut from 14.5%. Tencent now owns 7.9%, cloud computing firm Group 42’s Investments AI Holdings unit 5.6%, patent litigation firm Acacia Research 4.4% and Lansdowne, which bought about 500,000 shares in the offering, 4.8%.
An additional 18.5 million shares have been reserved for the greenshoe option, which could boost the IPO’s proceeds by as much as $107m.
BofASecurities, Citigroup Global Markets and JP Morgan Securities are joint global coordinators for the offering while Barclays, Berenberg, Guggenheim Securities, Numis Securities and RBC Europe are joint bookrunners.
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing. Image courtesy of Oxford Nanopore Technologies plc.
