HEADLINE AND GENERAL TEXT AMENDMENT
The following amendments have been
made to the Syncona Limited announcement released on 8 February at
12:13 under RNS No 5252C.
The headline has been amended to
'Autolus announces pricing of underwritten offering'.
The text in the announcement has been
amended to reflect that the proceeds from the strategic
collaboration between Autolus and BioNTech SE are anticipated
proceeds.
All other details remain
unchanged.
The full amended text is shown
below.
Syncona
Limited
Autolus announces
pricing of underwritten offering
08 February 2024
Syncona Ltd, a leading life science
investor focused on creating, building and scaling global leaders
in life science, notes that its portfolio
company, Autolus Therapeutics
plc ("Autolus") today announced the pricing of Autolus'
underwritten offering in the United States of
58,333,336 American
Depositary Shares ("ADSs") representing 58,333,336 ordinary shares, at a
public offering price of $6.00 per ADS, for total gross
proceeds of approximately $350.0 million (£277.2
million)[1]. All ADSs sold
in the offering were offered by Autolus. The offering is
expected to close on February 12, 2024, subject to customary
closing conditions.
Following this offering and
including the anticipated proceeds of $200 million for the issuance
of ADSs by Autolus to BioNTech SE
("BioNTech") as part of Autolus' strategic
collaboration with BioNTech, Syncona will retain a stake of
approximately 11.8% in Autolus (amounting to 33,527,162
ordinary shares) which was valued at £167.8 million at
close of business on 07 February 2024.
Chris Hollowood, CEO of Syncona Investment Management Limited,
said: "The collaboration with
BioNTech and the pricing of today's financing are fantastic
achievements for Autolus. The company is now well funded to deliver
obe-cel's path in r/r adult acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and will
be able to accelerate its oncology pipeline programmes and broaden
the use of Autolus' technology into autoimmune indications. A core
premise of Syncona's strategy is to build and fund companies to
late-stage development. We are proud Autolus has achieved the
milestone of a BLA submission and has also now secured the funding
to deliver on the next critical leg of the journey - delivering its
potentially transformational product to patients. We look forward
to seeing the FDA's decision around the approval of obe-cel in
November 2024."
This announcement does not
constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy
securities, and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation or sale
in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would
be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the
securities laws of that jurisdiction.
When available, copies of the final
prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus relating to
the offering may be obtained for free from the joint book-running
managers for the offering, Jefferies LLC, Attention: Equity
Syndicate Prospectus Department, 520 Madison Avenue, New York, NY
10022, by telephone at (877) 821-7388 or by email at
Prospectus_Department@Jefferies.com; or Truist Securities, Inc.,
Attention: Prospectus Department, 3333 Peachtree Road NE, 9th
floor, Atlanta, GA 30326, email:
TruistSecurities.prospectus@Truist.com, or by telephone:
1-800-685-4786.
The announcement can be accessed on
Autolus' investor website at https://www.autolus.com/investor-relations/news/
and the full text of the announcement from Autolus
is contained below.
[ENDS]
Enquiries
Syncona Ltd
Annabel Clark / Fergus
Witt
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3981 7940
FTI
Consulting
Ben Atwell / Natalie Garland-Collins
/ Tim Stamper
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3727 1000
About Syncona
Syncona's purpose is to invest to
extend and enhance human life. We do this by creating and building
companies to deliver transformational treatments to patients in
areas of high unmet need.
Our strategy is to create, build and
scale companies around exceptional science to create a diversified
portfolio of 20-25 globally leading healthcare businesses, across
development stage and therapeutic areas, for the benefit of all our
stakeholders. We focus on developing treatments for patients by
working in close partnership with world-class academic founders and
management teams. Our balance sheet underpins our strategy enabling
us to take a long-term view as we look to improve the lives of
patients with no or poor treatment options, build sustainable life
science companies and deliver strong risk-adjusted returns to
shareholders.
Syncona Limited seeks to achieve
returns over the long term. Investors should seek to ensure they
understand the risks and opportunities of an investment in Syncona
Limited, including the information in our published documentation,
before investing.
About Autolus
Autolus is a clinical-stage
biopharmaceutical company developing next-generation, programmed T
cell therapies for the treatment of cancer. Using a broad suite of
proprietary and modular T cell programming technologies, Autolus is
engineering precisely targeted, controlled and highly active T cell
therapies that are designed to better recognize cancer cells, break
down their defense mechanisms and eliminate these cells. Autolus
has a pipeline of product candidates in development for the
treatment of hematological malignancies and solid tumors. For more
information, please visit www.autolus.com.
Autolus Announces Pricing of
Underwritten Offering
LONDON - 8 February 2024 - Autolus Therapeutics
plc (Nasdaq: AUTL), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company
developing next-generation programmed T cell therapies, today
announced the pricing of an underwritten offering in the United
States of 58,333,336 American Depositary Shares ("ADSs")
representing 58,333,336 ordinary shares at a public offering price
of $6.00 per ADS, for total gross proceeds of $350 million. All
ADSs sold in the offering were offered by Autolus. Autolus intends to use the net proceeds from this offering,
together with its existing cash and cash equivalents and the $250
million it will receive from BioNTech SE, consisting of upfront
payments under a license and option agreement and gross proceeds
from the sale of ADSs to BioNTech SE in a private placement, to
advance the clinical development of its obe-cel program and fund
manufacturing activities for obe-cel, development of its commercial
infrastructure and working capital and other general corporate
purposes. The offering is expected to close on February 12,
2024, subject to customary closing conditions.
Jefferies LLC and Truist Securities,
Inc. are acting as joint bookrunners for the offering. Mizuho
Securities USA LLC, Needham & Company, LLC and Van Lanschot
Kempen (USA) Inc. are acting as co-managers.
The securities are being offered
pursuant to an automatic shelf registration statement on
Form S-3 that was previously filed with the Securities
and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). A final prospectus supplement
relating to the offering will also be filed with the SEC. These
documents can be accessed for free through the SEC's website
at www.sec.gov.
The offering will be made only by
means of a written prospectus and prospectus supplement that form a
part of the registration statement, which, for the avoidance of
doubt, will not constitute a "prospectus" for the purposes of the
Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 and has not been reviewed by any
competent authority in any member state in the European Economic
Area.
When available, copies of the final
prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus relating to
the offering may be obtained for free from the joint book-running
managers for the offering, Jefferies LLC,
Attention: Equity Syndicate Prospectus Department, 520 Madison
Avenue, New York, NY 10022, by telephone at (877) 821-7388 or by
email at Prospectus_Department@Jefferies.com; or Truist
Securities, Inc., Attention: Prospectus Department, 3333 Peachtree
Road NE, 9th floor, Atlanta, GA 30326, email:
TruistSecurities.prospectus@Truist.com, or by telephone:
1-800-685-4786.
This press release does not
constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy
securities, and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation or sale
in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would
be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the
securities laws of that jurisdiction.
About Autolus
Autolus is a clinical-stage
biopharmaceutical company developing next-generation, programmed T
cell therapies for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune disease.
Using a broad suite of proprietary and modular T cell programming
technologies, Autolus is engineering
precisely targeted, controlled and highly active T cell therapies
that are designed to better recognize target cells, break down
their defense mechanisms and eliminate these cells. Autolus has a
pipeline of product candidates in development for the treatment of
hematological malignancies, solid tumors and autoimmune diseases.
For more information, please visit www.autolus.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain
forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor"
provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995,
including statements with regard to Autolus' expectations regarding
the completion and use of proceeds from the proposed securities
offering. Words such as "anticipates," "believes," "expects,"
"intends," "projects," and "future" or similar expressions are
intended to identify forward-looking statements. These
forward-looking statements are subject to the inherent
uncertainties in predicting future results and conditions and no
assurance can be given that the proposed securities offering
discussed above will be consummated on the terms described or at
all. Completion of the proposed offering and the terms thereof are
subject to numerous factors, many of which are beyond the control
of Autolus, including, without limitation, market conditions,
failure of customary closing conditions and the risk factors and
other matters set forth in Autolus' Annual Report on Form 20-F for
the year ended December 31, 2022 and other filings Autolus makes
with the SEC from time to time. Autolus undertakes no obligation to
publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether
as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except
as may be required by law.
##
Contacts:
Olivia Manser
+44 (0) 7780 471568
o.manser@autolus.com
Julia Wilson
+44 (0) 7818 430877
j.wilson@autolus.com
Susan A Noonan
S.A. Noonan Communications
+1-917-513-5303
susan@sanoonan.com