VERAXA Biotech, a portfolio company of Swiss-listed Xlife Sciences, said this week it is planning to list on the NASDAQ Global Market. The listing is going to be achieved via a strategic merger with a SPAC, called Voyager Acquisition Corp.
The listing will bring a very sizeable clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company to the market. VERAXA is focused on the development of a “comprehensive pipeline” of next-generation cancer therapies. The company aims to trade under the proposed VERX ticker.
VERAXA owns research and development facilities in Heidelberg where it is working on next generation antibody drug conjugates and bispecific T cell engagers.
A new oncological standard has already been set by introducing VERAXA’s new BiTAC platform: BiTAC stands for Bi-targeted Tumor-Associated Cytotoxicity. It uses a new type of antibody design that works like a safety switch. The treatment is made up of two separate parts that only come together and become active when certain specific conditions are met.
The transaction values VERAXA, which is one of Xlife Sciences’ key portfolio businesses (current stake: ~18%), at approximately USD 1.3 billion (excluding trust funds). VERAXA’s shareholders will receive approximately 130 million shares of the combined company. Assuming a share price of USD 10.00 and no redemptions, the implied pro forma equity value of the combined entity will be approximately USD 1.64 billion. The business combination is expected to close in Q4 2025.
Upon completion, VERAXA expects to access gross proceeds of up to USD 253 million held in Voyager’s trust account.
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Contemporary Amperex Technology Co
Feathers are flying on Capitol Hill, as Rep John Moolenaar, who chairs the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (yes, there is such a thing), has written to the CEOs of both JP Morgan and Bank of America, asking both banks to step away from IPO of Contemporary Amperex Technology in Hong Kong.
CATL has been classified as a military company by the US Department of Defense and now Congress is seemingly increasingly worried that US banks are working hand in glove with the Chinese defence sector. CATL is believed to be involved in the much-needed modernisation of China’s first wave submarine fleet, including equipping submarines with lithium-ion batteries.
CATL has also been accused by the Committee of having ties to Xinjiang Production and Construction Corp, a sanctioned paramilitary group that is alleged to have been involved in the extermination of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.
According to Moolenaar, “If JPMorgan and Bank of America proceed with this IPO, they risk complicity in underwriting genocide, undermining American industry, and endangering US service members.”
Zopa
Zopa CEO Jaidev Janardana has weighed into the London IPO debate, becoming the latest senior executive to see considerable benefits for the London listings market in the wake of Donald Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs regime. With US markets increasingly volatile and a US President shooting from the hip on policy, the London Stock Exchange could quickly become a viable alternative to Wall Street.
Janardana said the UK digital bank was now reconsidering earlier plans to list in New York. “I would be surprised if that’s not the case more generally as well,” he told Business Matters magazine this week. He would not confirm if Zopa would definitely list in London however.
Zopa was founded as a peer-to-peer lending platform in 2005 and becamer a full-fledged banking institution in 2020. Its latest funding round valued Zopa at more than £1 billion. According to its latest financial results, Zopa secured over £68m in new capital last year. In 2023 it posted its first profit, of £15.4m, partly supported by rising interest rate income.
A number of other companies are known to have paused activity on planned New York IPOs in a trend that could see listings that were aimed at New York, looking at alternatives.
