Montes Archimedes Acquisition to bring Roivant Sciences public via merger - InvestingChannel

Montes Archimedes Acquisition to bring Roivant Sciences public via merger

Roivant Sciences, a biopharmaceutical and healthcare technology company, and Montes Archimedes Acquisition Corp. (MAAC), a special purpose acquisition company sponsored by Patient Square Capital, announced that they have entered into a definitive business combination agreement. Upon closing of the transaction, outstanding shares and warrants of MAAC will be exchanged for newly issued shares and warrants of Roivant Sciences, which is expected to be listed on Nasdaq under the new ticker symbol “ROIV.” “Since its founding in 2014, Roivant has put over 40 medicines into development across a wide range of disease areas. Companies built by Roivant have conducted eight consecutive positive Phase 3 studies with two FDA approvals to date. Roivant is also a leader in computational drug discovery through its combination of computational physics and machine learning-based platforms for the in silico design of small molecules,” the companies said. The transaction is expected to deliver up to $611M of gross proceeds to fund discovery and development programs. This includes up to $411M currently held in MAAC’s trust account, as well as a concurrent $200M common stock private investment in public equity, or “PIPE,” priced at $10.00 per share. New institutional and strategic investors and existing Roivant shareholders have committed to participate in the PIPE, including Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, Eventide Asset Management, Suvretta Capital, Palantir Technologies, RTW Investments, LP, Viking Global Investors, Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, and SB Management, a subsidiary of SoftBank Group Corp. Proceeds are expected to extend the company’s operating runway through mid-2024. Patient Square Capital and key Roivant equity holders and management have agreed to long-term lockups, with at least 50% of their holdings locked up for three years. In addition, Patient Square Capital has agreed to convert an additional 30% of its shares of MAAC to earn-out shares subject to performance vesting thresholds: 20% of its shares will vest at $15.00 per share and 10% will vest at $20.00 per share for 20 of 30 trading days within five years of closing. The boards of directors of both Roivant and MAAC have unanimously approved the proposed transaction. Completion of the transaction, which is expected in the third quarter of 2021, is subject to approval of MAAC shareholders and the satisfaction or waiver of certain other customary closing conditions.