Syncona
Limited
Century
Therapeutics to acquire Clade Therapeutics
11 April 2024
· Agreement reached for Clade to be acquired by Century for up
to $45 million (£35.9 million)
· Up-front consideration of $35 million (£27.9 million) in a
combination of cash and shares in Century, along with $10 million
(£8.0 million) in potential milestone payments
·
Syncona's ownership position of
Clade is 22%; up-front consideration to Syncona at closing is
estimated to be $9.3 million (£7.4 million), an estimated £16.1
million write down from the 31 December 2023 valuation of £23.5
million
· Sale of
Clade is in line with Syncona's focus on allocating capital towards
assets in the portfolio that can deliver clinical data in the near
term
Syncona Ltd ("Syncona" or the
"Company"), a leading life science investor focused on creating,
building and scaling global leaders in life science, today
announces that an agreement has been reached for the sale of its
portfolio company Clade Therapeutics ("Clade") to Century
Therapeutics ("Century"), a biotechnology company developing
induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived cell therapies, for up
to $45 million (£35.9 million)[1].
Syncona committed $30 million to
Clade in August 2021 alongside a syndicate of specialist investors
as part of a $87 million Series A financing. Since its foundation,
Clade has made significant scientific progress. The company
requires significant capital to progress to the clinic and despite
the positive scientific progress to-date as well as the potential
of its technology, access to significant third-party capital has
been challenging, in line with the broader market conditions for
pre-clinical biotechnology companies.
Against this challenging market backdrop, Syncona
has prioritised capital allocation to its assets that can deliver
clinical data in the near term. Alongside this, Syncona has also
worked with its portfolio companies to
widen financing syndicates, streamline pipelines and budgets, and
explored creative financing solutions and consolidations. The sale
of Clade to Century is in line with this approach.
The total potential consideration of
up to $45 million (£35.9 million) includes up-front consideration
of $35 million (£27.9 million) in a combination of cash and shares
in Century. Future milestones have the potential of generating
further consideration and if received in full will result in a
further $10 million (£8.0 million) in consideration. For its 22%
ownership position in Clade, Syncona anticipates up-front
consideration at closing to be $9.3 million (£7.4
million)[2], an
estimated £16.1 million write down from the 31 December 2023
valuation of £23.5 million[3].
Chris Hollowood, CEO of Syncona
Investment Management Limited, said: "Against a challenging market backdrop over the last 18
months, Syncona has prioritised capital allocation towards assets
that can achieve clinical data in the near term. The sale of Clade
to Century is in line with this approach. Since we invested in
Clade in 2021, the team has made significant progress developing
its differentiated pre-clinical technology. The market conditions
the company has faced have meant that it has been increasingly
important for Clade to access broader capabilities and improve
capital efficiency to take their technology forward. This
transaction enables this and we would like to congratulate them on
this achievement. We look forward to redeploying the proceeds and
our resource in line with our capital allocation focus to maximise
value for shareholders as we emerge from the current market
conditions."
[ENDS]
Enquiries
Syncona Ltd
Annabel Clark / Fergus
Witt
Tel: +44 (0) 7714 916615
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.