Taiwan's TWi Pharmaceuticals managed to raise around $87 million via a global depositary receipts issue that came in at a nearly 10% discount per share on a week-average basis. The move follows a management shake-up last month.
The company, in a press release, said it sold 14.40 million GDR units at $6.05 each and equal to one common share on the Taipei exchange, or NT$197.0, which was a 9.8% discount from the average closing price of the past 5 days.
The total amount raised was equivalent to NT$2.83 billion and marked it as the first Taiwanese pharmaceutical company to issue an offshore GDR among publicly-listed firms.
In late August, TWi said CEO and president Tina Guilder resigned less than a year since she joined from Teva Pharmaceuticals ($TEVA) after TWi broke in March with the Israeli firm on U.S. marketing plans.
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| Dr. Chih-Ming Chen |
She was replaced by Chairman Chih-Ming Chen as interim president and CEO.
In August, the company said it has received Notices of Allowance for lead candidate AC-201, a first-in-class small molecule, from the European Patent Office and the Patent Office of the Russian Federation. In May, TWi Pharmaceutical promoted its R&D executive vice president Jianbo Xie to chief operating officer.
"Under the circumstances of global economic instability, imminent U.S. dollar appreciation, sovereign debt problem in the EU zone, and turmoil among the emerging stock markets, investors were still very confident at the vision of Chairman Dr. Chih-Ming Chen and TWi's niche market position in the U.S. generic industry due to its strong R&D capabilities, solid commercialization experiences, and elite executive team, eyeing on the long-term sustainability of the pharmaceutical industry. Investors have high hopes for the successful future development of TWi," the company said in a statement.
The underwriter for the offer was Morgan Stanley with proceeds slated for R&D efforts, increased investment in its Chinese subsidiary, and expansion of its Taiwan production lines.
- here's the release