December IPO profiles: Drug-discovery company Moderna leads the way

IPO activity ended on a strong note in the year with three new VC-backed debuts in December, compared with just one new venture-backed public offering the month before.

Combined proceeds in December from the three new issues rose nearly 14 times to $821 million from $60 million for the lone IPO in November.

The largest of the bunch in December was drug-discovery company Moderna of Cambridge, Massachusetts, which raised $604 million in its offering. The company had previously raised $1.7 billion in capital from Merck & Co, Wellington Management and Sequoia Capital, among others.

The data below is supplied by Thomson Reuters.

Moderna Inc

Company Details

Cambridge, Mass.

617-714-6500

https://www.modernatx.com/

Description: Provides messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) therapeutics.

IPO Details

Exchange and Ticker: Nasdaq: MRNA

Filing Range: 26.28 million shares @ $22 to $24

Date of IPO: 12/6/18

Offering Price: $23

Closing price on 12/10/18: $18.80

Offering Size: $604.3 million

Shares Outstanding: 328.9 million

Market Capitalization on 12/31/18: $5023 million

Closing price on 12/31/18: $15.27

Underwriters: Morgan Stanley & Co, Goldman Sachs & Co, JP Morgan Securities LLC, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner, Barclays, Piper Jaffray Cos

Co-Managers: Oddo BHF SCA, Oppenheimer & Co Inc, Needham & Co LLC, Chardan Capital Markets LLC

Company Counsel: Goodwin Procter LLP

Manager Counsel: Ropes & Gray

Auditor: Ernst & Young LLP

Financial Details

Backers

• Flagship Pioneering
• Merck & Co Inc
• RA Capital Management
• Wellington Management Company
• Abu Dhabi Investment Authority
• Sequoia Capital
• ArrowMark Partners GP
• EDB Investments Pte Ltd
• Alexandria Venture Investments

Total funding raised: $1.7 billion

Mogu Inc

Company Details

Hangzhou, China

86-57-18-765-4321

https://www.mogujie.com/

Description: Hangzhou Juangua Network Co is a China-based company principally engaged in the provision of shopping information via the online platform. The company operates a website named Mogujie which provides key word searching, and leads customers to specific product page. Its customers can buy the clothing, accessories, cosmetics and non-cyclical household goods and others on the website.

IPO Details

Exchange and Ticker: NYSE: MOGU

Filing Range: 4.75 million shares @ $14 to $16

Date of IPO: 12/4/18

Offering Price: $14

Closing price on 12/6/18: $14

Offering Size: $66.5 million

Shares Outstanding: 2558.4 million

Market Capitalization on 12/31/18: $52421.6 million

Closing price on 12/31/18: $20.49

Underwriters: Morgan Stanley & Co, Credit Suisse Securities (USA), China Renaissance Sec(HK)Ltd

Company Counsel: Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom

Manager Counsel: Davis Polk & Wardwell

Auditor: PricewaterhouseCoopers Zhong

Financial Details

Backers

• Shenzhen Tiantu Capital Management Center
• Ping An Life Insurance Co of China Ltd
• Hope Investments Management Co Ltd
• IDG Capital Partners
• Banyan Capital
• Qiming Venture Partners
• Shanghai Trustbridge Partners Investment Management Co Ltd
• Bertelsmann Asia Investments
• GGV Capital

Total funding raised: $400 million

Synthorx Inc

Company Details

La Jolla, Calif.

https://synthorx.com/

Description: Synthorx Inc is a biopharmaceutical company. The company is focused on prolonging and improving the lives of people suffering from cancer and autoimmune disorders. Its platform technology expands the genetic code by adding a new deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) base pair and is designed to create optimized biologics, which is referred as Synthorins. The company’s lead product candidate, THOR-707, is a variant of IL-2 designed to kill tumor cells by increasing CD8+ T and natural killer (NK), cells without causing vascular leak syndrome (VLS), observed with IL-2 (aldesleukin). Its cytokine Synthorin programs, including IL-2, IL-10 and IL-15 for the treatment of cancer, and another IL-2 Synthorin program for the treatment of autoimmune disorders.

IPO Details

Exchange and Ticker: Nasdaq: THOR

Filing Range: 11.91 million shares @ $10 to $12

Date of IPO: 12/6/18

Offering Price: $11

Closing price as of 12/10/18: $14.50

Offering Size: $131 million

Shares Outstanding: 32 million

Market Capitalization on 12/31/18: $556.5 million

Closing price on 12/31/18: $17.38

Underwriters: Jefferies LLC, Leerink Partners LLC, Evercore Group

Company Counsel: Cooley LLP

Manager Counsel: Latham & Watkins

Auditor: Ernst & Young LLP

Financial Details

Backers

• Avalon Ventures
• RA Capital Management
• Correlation Ventures
• OrbiMed Advisors
• Osage University Partners
• Medicxi Ventures (UK)

Total funding raised: $80 million

Source: Thomson Reuters.

 

Additional Data

Historical number of VC-backed IPOs in December

Historical proceeds of VC-backed IPOs in December