Hong Kong-based biotechnology company Prenetics is going public by merging with Artisan Acquisition – a special purpose vehicle, or SPAC – in an agreement that will value the joint entity at $ 1.7 billion, the companies announced on Thursday.
Confirmation An earlier CNBC report, the two companies said the transaction would close as early as the fourth quarter.
This will make Prenetics the first Hong Kong unicorn, ie the driver of a billion dollars, to become a publicly traded company.
Prenetics CEO Danny Yeung (left) and Artisan Acquisition founder Adrian Cheng, who is also CEO and Executive Vice President of World Development. Prenetics will go public by merging SPAC with Artisan Acquisition, which the joint entity will estimate at $ 1.7 billion.
Source: Prenetics
The combined company will trade on the Nasdaq under the new PRE mark upon completion.
The merger is expected to secure up to $ 459 million in cash, which will go to strategic acquisitions, geographic expansion and research and development.
Artisan Acquisition is supported by Adrian Cheng, CEO and Executive Vice President of Hong Kong New world development. Prenetics – a diagnostic and genetic testing company operating in 10 countries – seeks to rely on Cheng’s business portfolio that includes retail, hospitality, healthcare and assets.
Investing in M&A
Prenetica was chosen for several reasons, says Ben Cheng, CEO of Artisan Acquisition.
The Hong Kong-based start-up is a high-growth company that disrupts the healthcare industry and is run by an established entrepreneur, Cheng told CNBC.Squawk Box Asia” on Thursday.
He was thinking of Artisan CEO and co-founder Danny Yeung, who had previously been at Groupon.
“We are very confident in his results,” Cheng said.
For his part, Yeung told CNBC that Prenetics’ top priority would be to use cash proceeds from mergers and acquisitions.
“The United States is a priority market for us, Southeast Asia and the rest of Europe – we will certainly invest back in growth, production, product development and research and development,” he said on Thursday.
To date, Prenetics has conducted more than 5 million tests on Covid-19 for customers, including the Hong Kong government and London Heathrow Airport.
Counts names like a Chinese internet company Alibaba, and insurers Ping An and Prudential as strategic investors.
The company has grown significantly since its founding in 2014. It predicts that revenue in 2021 will jump three times a year to $ 205 million and reach $ 600 million by 2025.
– Saheli Roy Choudhury of CNBC contributed to this report.
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