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 value 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.

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Hytha in San Francisco at mhytha@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Liana Baker at lbaker75@bloomberg.net, Michael Hytha, Matthew Monks

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