Galenica exercises over-allotment option

In the IPO, led by Credit Suisse and UBS, the company raised 42,391,300 shares at CHF39. The over-allotment option added an additional 6,358,700 shares (15%) worth CHF248m to that amount. In total, Galenica sold a total of 48,750,000 shares in the IPO, which corresponds to 97.5% of the share capital. The remaining shares, amounting to 2.5% of the share capital of Galenica Santé, are reserved for the exchange of Galenica Group shares into Galenica Santé shares for eligible employees of Galenica Santé. The IPO resulted in the targeted broadly-diversified shareholder base, comprising some 50% Swiss retail and institutional and around 50% international institutional investors. Baader Bank, Bank am Bellevue, Bank Vontobel AG and Zürcher Kantonalbank acted as Co-Lead Managers.

Galenica Group, which is to be renamed to Vifor Pharma Group and will be split into the two independent entities, the pharma company Vifor Pharma and the retailer Galenica Santé (renamed to Galenica), will use the proceeds from the Galenica Santé IPO to repay a bridge loan (CHF1.45bn) related to the former acquisition of US sales company, Relypsa (completed in Q3/2016). The remaining proceeds will be used for the ongoing market launch of Veltassa in the US and the planned launches of Retacrit in the US and Rayaldee in Europe between 2017 and 2020. Additional investment is planned to further expand the market for Ferinject /Injectafer, Velphoro and Mircera, an beta-erytropoietin licensed from Roche.

Through the IPO, Galenica/Vifor Group has sold the majority of its Galenica Santé shares and has made good progress in its plan to fully divest Galenica Santé in order to complete the separation into two independent companies.