Keith Meister-backed SPAC to merge with biotech firm EQRx in $3.65 billion deal

(Reuters) -Activist investor Keith Meister and life sciences investor Eli Casdin will take biotech firm EQRx Inc public through their third blank-check firm in a $3.65 billion deal, the companies said on Friday, as this mode of dealmaking gathers pace again after a regulatory crackdown.

The transaction with CM Life Sciences III, which will result in cash proceeds of $1.8 billion for EQRx, includes a private investment in public equity (PIPE) of $1.2 billion from SB Management Limited, a subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp, Casdin Capital, Corvex Management and others.

Blank-check firms are publicly traded companies that use the funds from their initial public offerings to buy private firms, taking them public in the process.

The huge size of the PIPE funding further points to a rebound in dealmaking in the blank-check industry, after a chill earlier due to saturated investor demand and a clampdown by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on the methods used by such firms to raise funds.

Shares of CM Life Sciences III were up around 3.6% in premarket trade.

Founded in 2019, EQRx, which counts Andreessen Horowitz and Casdin Capital among its backers, seeks to develop low-cost medicines.

It is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and has a pipeline that includes potential therapies for diseases including lung cancer and liver cancer. The company has raised $800 million in funding to date, according to its website.

Melanie Nallicheri, currently president and chief operating officer at EQRx, will lead the combined company as chief executive officer.

The transaction, which has been approved by the board of both the companies, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.

The combined firm will be listed on the Nasdaq under the symbol “EQRX.”

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