argenx announces closing of global offering


Regulated information – Inside information


November 12, 2019 - 10:00 PM CET

Breda, the Netherlands / Ghent, Belgium – argenx (Euronext & Nasdaq: ARGX) a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing a deep pipeline of differentiated antibody-based therapies for the treatment of severe autoimmune diseases and cancer, announced today the closing of its global offering of an aggregate of 4,600,000 ordinary shares (including in the form of American Depositary Shares (ADSs)), which includes the full exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase 600,000 additional ADSs. The global offering consisted of (i) a public offering of 2,010,057 ADSs in the United States and certain other countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA) at a price to the public of $121.00 and (ii) a concurrent private placement of 2,589,943 of ordinary shares in the EEA at an offering price of €109.18. The gross proceeds from the global offering were approximately $557 million (approximately €502 million).

Morgan Stanley, Cowen, BofA Securities and Evercore acted as joint bookrunning managers for the offering. Kempen acted as lead manager for the offering and Wolfe Capital Markets and Advisory acted as co-manager.

The securities were offered pursuant to an automatically effective shelf registration statement that was previously filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). A preliminary prospectus supplement relating to the securities was filed with the SEC on November 6, 2019 and a final prospectus supplement relating to the securities was filed with the SEC on November 8, 2019 and are available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Copies of the final prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus relating to the global offering may be obtained for free from Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, 180 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, New York 10014, United States, Attention: Prospectus Department; from Cowen and Company, LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, Attn: Prospectus Department, by email at PostSaleManualRequests@broadridge.com, or by telephone at (833) 297-2926; BofA Securities, NC1-004-03-43, 200 North College Street, 3rd floor, Charlotte, North Carolina 28255-0001, Attn: Prospectus Department, or by email at dg.prospectus_requests@baml.com; or Evercore Group L.L.C., Attention: Equity Capital Markets, 55 East 52nd Street, 36th Floor, New York, NY 10055, or by telephone at (888) 474-0200.

In addition, argenx announced today the listing of and the commencement of dealings in its 4,600,000 new ordinary shares (including those underlying the ADSs) on the regulated market of Euronext Brussels, effective today, November 12, 2019.

This press release is for information purposes only and does not constitute, and should not be construed as, an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe to any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale is not permitted or to any person or entity to whom it is unlawful to make such offer, solicitation or sale. Reference is also made to the restrictions set out in “Important information” below. This press release is not for publication or distribution, directly or indirectly, in or into any state or jurisdiction into which doing so would be unlawful or where a prior registration or approval is required for such purpose.

About argenx
argenx is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing a deep pipeline of differentiated antibody-based therapies for the treatment of severe auto-immune diseases and cancer. The company is focused on developing product candidates with the potential to be either first-in-class against novel targets or best-in-class against known, but complex, targets in order to treat diseases with a significant unmet medical need. argenx’s ability to execute on this focus is enabled by its suite of differentiated technologies. The SIMPLE AntibodyTM Platform, based on the powerful llama immune system, allows argenx to exploit novel and complex targets, and its three complementary Fc engineering technologies are designed to expand the therapeutic index of its product candidates.

For further information, please contact:
Joke Comijn, Director Corporate Communications & Investor Relations (EU)
+32 (0)477 77 29 44
+32 (0)9 310 34 19
info@argenx.com

Beth DelGiacco, Vice President, Investor Relations (US)
+1 518 424 4980
bdelgiacco@argenx.com

Forward-looking Statements
The contents of this announcement include statements that are, or may be deemed to be, “forward-looking statements.” These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the terms “believes,” “estimates,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “intends,” “may,” “will,” or “should.”  By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. argenx’s actual results may differ materially from those predicted by the forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including argenx’s expectations regarding the inherent uncertainties associated with competitive developments, preclinical study and clinical trial and product development activities and regulatory approval requirements; argenx’s reliance on collaborations with third parties; estimating the commercial potential of argenx’s product candidates; argenx’s ability to obtain and maintain protection of intellectual property for its technologies and drugs; argenx’s limited operating history; and argenx’s ability to obtain additional funding for operations and to complete the development and commercialization of its product candidates. A further list and description of these risks, uncertainties and other risks can be found in argenx’s U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings and reports, including in argenx’s most recent annual report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC as well as subsequent filings and reports filed by argenx with the SEC. Given these uncertainties, the reader is advised not to place any undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of publication of this document. argenx undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise the information in this press release, including any forward-looking statements, except as may be required by law.

Important information
The prospectus supplement does not constitute a prospectus within the meaning of the Prospectus Regulation and has not been approved by the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (Stichting Autoriteit Financiële Markten) or the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (Autoriteit Financiële Diensten en Markten) or any other European Supervisory Authority.

No public offering was made and no one has taken any action that would, or was intended to, permit a public offering in any country or jurisdiction, other than the United States, where any such action is required, including in the European Economic Area. In the European Economic Area, the transaction to which this press release relates will only be available to, and will be engaged in only with, qualified investors within the meaning of Directive 2003/71/EC (together with any applicable implementing measures in the relevant member state of the European Economic Area and as amended, including by Directive 2010/73/EU, to the extent implemented in the relevant member state).

European Economic Area:
No action has been taken to offer the shares to a retail investor established in the European Economic Area as part of the global offering. For the purposes of this paragraph:

  1. The expression "retail investor" means a person who is one (or more) of:
    1. a retail client as defined in point (11) of Article 4(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU (as amended, “MiFID II”); or
    2. a customer within the meaning of Directive 2016/97/EU, as amended, where that customer would not qualify as a professional client as defined in point (10) of Article 4(1) of MiFID II; or
    3. not a “qualified investor” as defined in the Prospectus Regulation; and
  2. the expression “offer” means any communication in any form and by any means of sufficient information on the terms of the offer and securities to be offered so as to enable an investor to decide to purchase or subscribe these securities.

In addition, in the United Kingdom, the transaction to which this press release relates will only be available to, and will be engaged in only with, investment professionals falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act (Financial Promotion) Order 2005, as amended (the Order), persons falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order, and other persons to whom this announcement may lawfully be communicated (all such persons together being referred to as "relevant persons"). The securities referred to herein are only available to, and any invitation, offer or agreement to subscribe, purchase or otherwise acquire such securities will be engaged in only with relevant persons. Any person who is not a relevant person should not act or rely on this communication or any of its contents.

This press release is not an approved prospectus by the Financial Services Authority or by any other regulatory authority in the United Kingdom within the meaning of Section 85 of the Order.