Malin Corporation, an Ireland-based global life sciences company, has raised €330m ($350m) in an initial public offering backed by UK and Ireland’s sovereign wealth funds and agreed its first deal.
Sovereign wealth funds UK Pension Protection Fund and Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) are in its top five investors at the IPO.
They were joined by US-based property rental group Reedy Creek Investments, UK-based private equity company Woodford Investment Management and UK-based insurance company Aviva that fill out the other three spots.
Woodford Investment Management is being used by James Goodnight, founder of US-based software company SAS Institute, as an investment vehicle.
Malin is set to invest €90m in seven companies and relocate 10 to Ireland as part of its ISIF backing.
US-based clinical-stage biotechnology company Novan Therapeutics, which focuses on treating dermatological conditions, received $50m in a funding round backed by Malin.
The round was oversubscribed and also included unnamed returning private investors. The funding includes an earlier August 2014 round of $10.3m and is twice the originally targeted amount of $25m.
Novan previously secured $11m in 2013 from private investors located in North Carolina’s Research Triangle area, where the company itself is based.
Spun out of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2008, Novan develops therapies for various dermatological conditions by using a molecule called nitric oxide. The molecule has been shown to regulate inflammation, revitalise tissue, kill invading micro-organisms, and may even be able to fight cancer.
Novan currently has a lead drug candidate for acne in a Phase 2b clinical trial.
