ISRAEL
CITI LEFT WITH STICK AFTER
WINNING LEUMI MANDATECitigroup won an auction last week to sell
the Israeli government’s remaining 5.37%
stake in BANK LEUMI but was left with a small
residual holding.
The Israeli state said in June that it would sell
the stake within a year. The holding is a relic of
the state’s decision to buy nearly all of the
shares of Israel’s banks after a crisis in 1983,
with the other top lenders since privatised.
On Tuesday, the government sent invites
to nine banks to tender for the mandate,
receiving bids from six. A banker on the
trade acknowledged that the market was
waiting for the sale following the
government announcement, with the only
question whether it would launch before or
after the summer break.
Having bought the shares from the
government at NIS23.38, Citigroup
launched the sale of 81m shares on Tuesday
evening with guidance of NIS23.38 to the
close of NIS23.72.
Books closed at 8.45pm in London
without a covered message and pricing at
NIS23.38, a 1.4% discount to the close and
flat to the purchase price.
The banker said that the residual unsold
stock was small in size and confirmed that
well over 75% of the stock had been
distributed.
“We knew that there was good pent up
demand locally and that was reflected in the
book,” said the banker.
The stock was down on Wednesday,
closing at NIS23.10, but pulled back during
the day on Thursday, rising comfortably
above pricing at NIS23.47 but came off in
the closing auction on Thursday and ended
the week at NIS23.24.ITALY
MORATTI FAMILY RAISES €190m FROM
SARAS SALEA speedy sell-down of shares belonging to
members of the founding family of energy
company SARAS was led by Bank of America
Merrill Lynch on Wednesday evening, as its
two largest shareholders Massimo Moratti di
Massimo Moratti and Mobro cashed in
€190m.
The accelerated bookbuild involved
95.1m shares, evenly split between the two
vendors, or 47.55m shares each. That
represented approximately 10% of the share
capital, sold at €2 per share, a 7.4% discount
to Wednesday’s close of €2.16.Books opened just after 4:30pm in London
on Wednesday and were covered around
half an hour later, closing at 6:45pm.
Saras chairman Massimo Moratti, the son
of founder Angelo Moratti, heads up the
selling Moratti entity and his nephews
control Mobro. Post-money, Moratti family
members maintain ownership of around
40% of the company through the two
entities.
They are locked-up for a lengthy 270 days.
The Sardinian oil refiner and electricity
producer saw its shares struggle following
the placing, opening below €2 on Thursday
and closing at €1.87, down 13.25% for the
day.NETHERLANDS
PROQR SEIZES FUNDING OPPORTUNITYPROQR THERAPEUTICS has improved its ability to
fund its evolving RNA therapeutics platform
through an upsized follow-on offering.
The Dutch company opportunistically
raised US$90.6m on Thursday night after
reporting encouraging interim data from a
Phase I/II trial of its experimental RNA
therapy for a rare form of childhood
blindness on Wednesday morning.
ProQR shares doubled after the data was
read, giving the company its first public
funding opportunity since its IPO four years
ago.
Citigroup, Evercore and RBC Capital Markets
launched the deal on Wednesday night after
the market close. While there was no formal
wall-cross, the company did apprise a select
group of investors on its operations ahead of
the formal launch.
“A stock offering becomes quite likely
when a stock is up 100% in one day,” as one
banker put it to IFR.
ProQR stock dipped 8.3% after a day of
marketing. The banks ended up pricing5.75m shares at US$15.75 versus the
US$16.40 closing price and upsized from the
US$75m funding target.
ProQR was solely focused on cystic fibrosis
when it went public in September 2014 but
pivoted to rare childhood diseases this year.
The new data cut suggests ProQR’s RNA
therapy might provide better treatment for
certain childhood blindness disorders than
other genetic repair techniques, according
to a HC Wainwright research report.
ProQR stopped enrolling new patients
after demonstrating human proof-of-
concept. Six of 10 patients with a childhood
blindness disorder called LCA10 experienced
clinically meaningful improved vision after
just three months of RNA treatment.
The company expects to begin Phase II/III
trials in LCA10 patients early next year.
ProQR has not yet abandoned a cystic
fibrosis drug, though it has at least two
other RNA repair drugs in early-stage
development.
There are still plans for a Phase II trial of
eluforsen, an FDA designated orphan drug
for cystic fibrosis, though the company is
seeking alternatives.
“It is likely that ProQR will look to
monetize eluforsen through a licensing
deal, or other arrangement with a well-
funded partner,” Andrew Fein, an analyst
with HC Wainwright, told IFR.
The company had US$38m of cash on the
balance sheet as of June 30, which was
enough to fund operations into late 2019.
It now has nearly US$130m of pro forma
cash and two other RNA repair drugs in the
clinic - including for a rare skin disorder that
will report interim data later this year.ELASTIC STRETCHES TOWARDS
NYSE DEBUTSearch subscription software provider
ELASTIC showed its hand by publicly filing
Wednesday for a US$100m NYSE IPO thatInternational Financing Review September 8 2018 87EQUITIES EMEA
EMEA COMMON STOCK MANAGER LEGAL ADVISERS
1/1/2018 TO DATE
No of Total Share
Legal adviser issues US$(m) (%)
1 Sullivan & Cromwell 7 8,326.6 8. 1
2 White & Case 18 5,211.6 5. 1
3 Latham & Watkins 13 4,518.7 4 .4
4 Freshfields Bruckhaus 4 3,127.3 3. 1
Deringer
5 Linklaters 15 2,821.3 2.8
6 Allen & Overy 8 2,648.3 2.6
7 Herbert Smith Freehills 5 2,319.0 2.3
8 Shearman & Sterling 3 1,856.8 1.8
9 Simmons & Simmons 7 1,336.6 1.3
10 Davis Polk & Wardwell 5 1,322. 4 1.3
Total 647 102,610.7Source: Thomson Reuters SDC code: AX4EMEA COMMON STOCK ISSUER LEGAL ADVISERS
1/1/2018 TO DATE
No of Total Share
Legal adviser issues US$(m) (%)
1 Sullivan & Cromwell 5 8,885.5 8. 7
2 Latham & Watkins 4 5,634.7 5.5
3 Linklaters 8 4,048.5 4 .0
4 Freshfields Bruckhaus 6 2,937.5 2.9
Deringer
5 White & Case 9 2,603.9 2.5
6 Clifford Chance 5 2,346.6 2.3
7 Slaughter and May 4 1,851.7 1.8
8 Davis Polk & Wardwell 8 1,841.4 1.8
9 Advokatfirmaet 6 1,372.1 1.3
Thommessen
10 Allen & Overy 7 1,213.8 1. 2
Total 647 102,610.7
Source: Thomson Reuters SDC code: AX310 Equities and SE 2250 p81-98.indd 87 07/09/2018 20:19:32