Abivax kicked off book-building and the filing of an amended registration statement on Form F-1, to issue approximately 20,325,500 ordinary shares.
Abivax said it intends to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase additional ADSs and/or ordinary shares in an aggregate amount of up to 15% of the total number of ADSs and ordinary shares proposed to be sold in the Global Offering.
Abivax said it plans to announce the result of the Global Offering in an upcoming press release.
The closings of the U.S. Offering and the European Private Placement will occur simultaneously and are expected to occur on the second trading day after the initial trading day of the Global Offering, Abivax said.
The company said it expects to use the net proceeds from the Global Offering as follows (assuming an exchange rate of €1.00 = $1.0565, the exchange rate on October 18, 2023):
- approximately €170.0 million ($179.6 million) to fund the development of obefazimod for UC;
- approximately €15.0 million ($15.8 million) to fund the development of obefazimod for CD; and
- the remainder for working capital and for other general corporate purposes, including in the continued research to identify new compounds and the payment of maturities of existing debt agreements as they become due (mostly allocated to payments under the Kreos / Claret Financing (as defined below), and assuming that the Company will repay the Heights Financing (as defined below) through the issuance of new shares instead of making cash payments).
Abivax believes that the expected net proceeds from the Global Offering, together with its current cash and cash equivalents, will allow it to finance its operations through (i) the announcement of its top-line data from its Phase 3 ABTECT-1 and ABTECT-2 induction trials for UC and (ii) the announcement of its top-line data from its Phase 2a induction trial for CD.
Abivax said that if it further draws down on the third tranche of the Kreos / Claret Financing, amounting to €25 million and the second tranche of the Heights Financing amounting to €40 million, it expects to have sufficient funds to finance its operations into the second quarter of 2026. Under these assumptions and based on its current clinical plan, it would have sufficient funds to finance its operations through the announcement of its top-line data from the Phase 3 ABTECT maintenance trial for UC.