BioNTech IPO Falls in Trading Debut as Biotech IPO Wave Ebbs

(Bloomberg) -- BioNTech SE rose briefly and then fell in its trading debut after pricing its U.S. initial public offering below its target range as a wave of biotechnology listings recedes.

The German company raised $150 million after pricing its American depositary shares at $15 each Wednesday. The shares, which rose as much as 11% after trading opened, closed down 5.1% to $14.24 Thursday in New York trading, giving the company a market of about $3.2 billion.

A parade of IPOs by biotechnology and biomedical companies that has yielded mixed results is set to continue Thursday with a listing of as much as $157 million by Vir Biotechnology Inc.

Biotech and biomedical companies, though overshadowed by so-called unicorns such as Uber Technologies Inc. with its $8.1 billion IPO in May, account for 34 of the 144 listings on U.S. exchanges this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Those companies garnered $4.9 billion of the total $45 billion raised in those listings, according to the data.

After the September collapse of IPO plans for WeWork parent We Co. and entertainment company Endeavor Group Holdings Inc., a handful of biotech companies have plowed ahead with their listing plans.

Aprea Therapeutics Inc. priced its shares in the middle of its marketed range to raise $85 million in its IPO last week. Its shares have climbed about 29% from the offer price since then.

Also last week, Viela Bio Inc. raised $150 million and Frequency Therapeutics Inc. got $84 million, with both of their share sales pricing at the bottom of their target ranges. Viela Bio is down 1.3% from its offer price, while Frequency Therapeutics has fallen 9.5%.

ADC Cancels

ADC Therapeutics SA withdrew its plans for an offering of as much as $212 million one week ago, citing “adverse market conditions” in a statement.

BioNTech, which cut the size of its offering the day of its IPO, sold 10 million shares after earlier marketing 13.2 million of them for $18 to $20 apiece.

The company, founded in 2008, focuses on creating individualized treatments for cancer patients. The company has raised $1.3 billion in private placements, according to its filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The offering was led by JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., UBS Group AG and SVB Leerink. The shares are trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol BNTX.

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