DUBLIN: Malin, an Irish company set up by a number of former Elan executives to invest in privately held life science assets, said it plans to raise between €275 million and €325 million in one of Europe’s biggest biotechnology IPOs.
Former Elan chief executive Kelly Martin and chairman Bob Ingram, who sold the Irish stock market stalwart to Perrigo for $8.6 billion in 2013, will sit on the board of the new company formed out of private firm Brandon Point Industries.
Malin said it will invest in companies for whom an initial public offering (IPO) or trade sale is premature and provide the long term capital and industry experience it says venture capital and private equity funds cannot guarantee.
It said it has seven such firms lined up, from a US disinfection technology to a Pan-African distributor, with the IPO set to top the £200 million Circassia raised a year ago in the biggest London market biotech debut in years.
A substantial portion of the funds have already been committed, the company said in a pre-admission notice on Friday.
“Our strong belief is that this journey is best served by one type of money and that’s long term money,” Malin chief executive Adrian Howd, a former equity analyst at Berenberg Bank, told Reuters in a telephone interview.
“Over the years, all of us have seen too many times where the science has been fantastic but the commercial impact has underwhelmed because scientists are not best placed to judge the best time to monetise.”
