Benzinga | Sep 16, 2021 07:44AM EDT

Repligen To Acquire Avitide For $150M

Repligen Corporation (NASDAQ:RGEN), a life sciences company focused on bioprocessing technology leadership, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Avitide Inc., for approximately $150 million, comprised of $75 million in cash plus $75 million in Repligen common stock in addition to performance-based earnout payments over the next three years. Avitide is a leading chromatography developer with diverse affinity ligand libraries and best-in-class ligand-to-resin development timelines.

Tony J. Hunt, President and CEO of Repligen said, "The addition of Avitide is a major step forward in building out our Proteins business and in particular our affinity ligand discovery engine. This acquisition builds off the excellent partnership we have already established with Navigo GmbH and really strengthens and expands our ligand discovery and development capabilities. We are excited to have the entire Avitide team join Repligen and look forward to accelerating the commercialization of Avitide's discovery platform. Together, we anticipate bringing many new products to market over the coming years, directly addressing the growing need for affinity solutions in gene therapy and other emerging modalities."

Kevin Isett, President and CEO of Avitide said, "We have made tremendous progress in affinity ligand and chromatography development over the past decade. Avitide's culture of rapid and continuous technology innovation is what differentiates us from other companies and it is where we feel a strong kinship with Repligen. Repligen is the ideal partner to drive the expanded adoption of existing products and introduction of new products to the market through the combination of their established global operational and commercial capabilities and Avitide's unique and differentiated affinity chromatography discovery platform."

Approvals and Financing

The transaction is expected to be completed during the third quarter of 2021, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. To fund the transaction, Repligen intends to use its cash on hand, which totaled approximately $734 million at June 30, 2021. Perella Weinberg Partners LP is acting as financial advisor and Goodwin Procter LLP is serving as legal counsel to Repligen. EC M&A is acting as the financial advisor and Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP is serving as the legal counsel to Avitide for the transaction.