Temasek-backed Oxford Nanopore prices IPO that may yield valuation of up to £3.8b

London

OXFORD Nanopore Technologies, the DNA-sequencing company, plans an initial public offering ((IPO) that could raise as much as £476 million (S$880 million), capitalising on the success of its pandemic work to fund future growth.

The deal values the University of Oxford spinoff backed by Oracle Corp and Temasek as high as £3.8 billion, according to terms seen on Thursday by Bloomberg.

That is about US$1 billion more than during its last funding round, and places the company among the UK's most valuable startups.

Oxford Nanopore has put its sequencing to work in the pandemic as researchers used its technology to characterise the genome of the Sars-CoV-2 virus and then to identify and track worrisome variants.

The decision to sell shares in London comes as a boost to the UK's ambitions to keep homegrown businesses from fleeing to the United States in search of investors, especially after Brexit.

The Oxford-based company seeks to raise £350 million, the terms showed. Existing investors will sell as much as £126 million in stock. The shares will be marketed at 375 pence to 450 pence each till Sept 30, and start trading the next day.

The startup was worth about £2.5 billion during its last funding round in May, based on the valuation that shareholder IP Group assigned to its 14.5 per cent stake. Another DNA sequencing firm, the US giant Illumina, is currently valued at more than US$68 billion.

Oxford Nanopore has said the IPO proceeds will help it draw nearer to a goal of enabling "the analysis of anything by anyone, anywhere". While many customers use its sequencing for scientific research, the company has highlighted potential in other areas such as food safety.

Its technology has been used to assemble the genome of lungfish, better analyse different forms of cancer and monitor ecosystems for conservation. During the pandemic, it also provides Covid-19 test kits to Britain's National Health Service.

The biotech has adopted a controversial equity structure designed to give founders a special class of shares with extra power to block an unwanted takeover.

Gordon Sanghera, its founder and chief executive officer, will receive what is known as limited anti-takeover shares. The share structure means that Oxford Nanopore will be ineligible for inclusion in the FTSE stock indexes.

Some analysts say the structure helps London compete with New York in attracting innovative founder-led startups, while a number of institutional investors say the system erodes shareholder rights.

If there is enough demand, underwriters can sell additional shares, which will increase the size of the offering to as much as £547 million.

Bank of America Corp, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase & Co are global coordinators of the offering. Barclays Bank, Berenberg, Guggenheim Securities, Numis Corp and RBC Capital Markets are joint bookrunners. BLOOMBERG