Biopharma Cred. Share News (BPCR)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Life sciences debt investor BioPharma Credit PLC said Thursday it has had a "highly successful" 2017 and announced a share issue to raise USD300.0 million.

BioPharma, which began trading on March 30, 2017, on London's Main Market, reported net asset value per share of USD1.0091 per share as at December 31, 3.0% higher than the end of March's USD0.9800 net asset value per share.

Total income in the period from October 24, 2016, to December 31, 2017, was USD39.3 million, while the return before tax was USD31.7 million.

BioPharma said, with total commitments of USD693.2 million to USD713.2 million made during the period, it is well on its way to building a portfolio of life sciences debt investments. Since March, it made four investments totalling USD363.7 million.

The life sciences industry has done well over the past few months, it said, with the New York Stock Exchange Biotechnology index rising 18% since April and 37% since the start of 2017.

BioPharma also announced Thursday it is to place 300 million C shares at a price of USD1.00 per share, raising USD300.0 million for current and future investment opportunities.

The joint bookrunners for the raise are Merrill Lynch International, Goldman Sachs International, and JPMorgan Securities PLC.

Chief Executive Pedro Gonzalez de Cosio said: "This has been a highly successful first year for BioPharma Credit and we are delighted with the progress since the initial listing in March 2017. Since the IPO, the company has made five investments, deploying USD514 million in corporate and royalty debt secured by cash flows derived from sales of approved life sciences products and a further USD339.5m in future commitments subject to certain conditions."

"BioPharma Credit remains uniquely positioned to generate uncorrelated long-term shareholder returns, predominantly in the form of sustainable income distributions from exposure to the life sciences industry."

Shares were up 1.1% on Thursday at a price of 1.02 US dollar cents each.