Analysis
City Therapeutics priced an upsized IPO of 11,111,111 shares at $18.00 per share, for about $200 million in gross proceeds, according to a release on BioSpace. Shares are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Market under ticker CTY on October 16, with the offering set to close October 19. Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, Stifel and Oppenheimer are acting as joint book-running managers.
The pricing is an upsize from the $175 million in terms Pulse covered on October 12, when the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based RNAi biotech first set its IPO range. Going from filed terms to a larger priced deal in four days suggests the book built faster than the company's own range anticipated, a different signal than a deal that prices at the low end or gets cut.
“Combined with this IPO, the company has raised roughly $300 million in under five months.”
City Therapeutics closed a $99.5 million Series B in June, led by new investors Viking Global Investors and Sofinnova Investments alongside returning backers ARCH Venture Partners, Fidelity, Invus and Regeneron Ventures. Combined with this IPO, the company has raised roughly $300 million in under five months. Its lead program, CITY-FXI for thromboembolic disease, is in Phase 1, with a second candidate, CITY-RBP4 for Stargardt disease, carrying positive preclinical data.
CTY's opening trade will be the next real signal for the RNAi biotech IPO window, alongside Iambic Therapeutics' recent Nasdaq debut, two data points investors will use to judge whether this month's biotech IPO demand is broad or narrowly concentrated in a handful of favored names.