The Waltham, Massachusetts-based bioprocessing company announced a public offering last week of around $100m (€89m) of convertible senior notes due 2021, and according to its prospectus the cash raised could “fund possible acquisitions of, or investments in, complementary businesses, products, services and technologies.”
While the firm says it is yet to have entered into any such agreement, the offering fits in with Repligen’s M&A strategy which has seen the firm diversify its portfolio from Protein A ligand manufacturer to an upstream and downstream equipment supplier to the biomanufacturing industry.
“Our expected use of net proceeds from this offering represents our current intentions based upon our present plans and business condition,” the prospectus added. “We will selectively pursue acquisitions of innovative technologies and products.”
Last month the $22.5m acquisition of German life sciences firm Atoll beefed up Repligen’s pre-packed chromatography column portfolio, while in 2014 the firm acquired the bioprocessing assets of Refine Technology adding the Alternating Tangenital Flow (ATF) system to its upstream offering.
However, the firm remains the major producer of Protein A ligands, used to make Protein A resin which is highly effective chromatography media used to capture monoclonal antibodies during bioproduction.
Recently Repligen has extended long-term ligand supply contracts with both GE Healthcare and Purolite.
The delivery of the notes is expected to be made to investors in book-entry form today and the notes are set to mature on June 1, 2021. Investment bank Jefferies is acting as the sole book-running manager.