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Oxford Nanopore Raises £80M From Novo Holding, Institutional Investors Through Share Placement

This story has been updated to include additional information from Oxford Nanopore and Novo Holdings.

NEW YORK – Oxford Nanopore Technologies said Thursday that the company has raised approximately £80 million ($102.5 million) through a placement of new ordinary shares, including a strategic investment of approximately £50 million from life sciences investor Novo Holdings.

The equity raise exceeded the company's original goal, announced on Wednesday, of raising a total of £75 million.

The UK nanopore sequencing firm said it will issue 25,000,000 new ordinary shares of £.0001 each at an issue price of 120 pence per share with institutional investors, raising gross proceeds of approximately £30 million. The total number of new ordinary shares will be approximately 8 percent of the existing issued share capital of the company.

In addition, Novo Holdings has committed to subscribe for 41,666,667 of Oxford Nanopore’s new ordinary shares at the placing price, resulting in gross proceeds of approximately £50 million for the company. Novo Holdings said it intends to make further share purchases of up to £10 million over time in the secondary market, subject to availability and price.

Oxford Nanopore said the money raised will be used for general corporate purposes. "This investment reinforces and validates Oxford Nanopore's strategy and future growth plans across each of its end markets," the company said in a statement.

Citigroup Global Markets, JP Morgan Securities, and Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. were the joint global coordinators, bookrunners, and corporate brokers for the placement.

"We are confident in Oxford Nanopore's long-term value proposition after extensive due diligence within the biopharma community and analysis of their robust and extensive IP portfolio, and we look forward to supporting the company going forward," Daniel Mahony, Novo Holdings' senior partner of growth investments, said in a statement.