Slaughter and May advised Oxford Nanopore in connection with the investment by Novo Holdings A/S and related placing of ordinary shares

Slaughter and May advised Oxford Nanopore Technologies plc, the company delivering a new generation of nanopore-based molecular sensing technology, in connection with a £50m subscription for newly issued ordinary shares (the “Subscription”) by Novo Holdings A/S, the leading long-term global healthcare investor with €149 billion under management, and a placing to institutional investors through an accelerated bookbuilding process to raise a further £30 million.

Together, the total number of shares to be issued represent approximately 8 per cent. of ONT’s existing issued share capital.

Citigroup Global Markets Limited, J.P. Morgan Securities plc (which conducts its UK investment banking business as J.P. Morgan Cazenove) and Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. KG acted as Joint Global Coordinators, Joint Bookrunners and Joint Corporate Brokers in connection with the placing.

As per the new U.K. listing regime, application will be made for the New Ordinary Shares to be admitted to the "transition" listing segment of the Official List of the Financial Conduct Authority and to be admitted to trading on the main market for listed securities of the London Stock Exchange plc. The Placing is conditional, among other things, upon Admission becoming effective.

Slaughter and May worked closely with Cravath Swaine & Moore (Philip Boeckman) and the in-house legal team at Oxford Nanopore, including Jordan Herman (SVP, General Counsel) and Hannah Coote (Company Secretary).

Dr. Gordon Sanghera, CEO, Oxford Nanopore said: 

“Novo Holdings is one of the world’s top life sciences investors, and we are delighted to welcome them as a long-term shareholder. The Novo Holdings team brings deep knowledge of the biopharmaceutical market, including biomanufacturing, a key growth area for Oxford Nanopore. Our technology platform is uniquely suited to address the needs of this industry where information-rich, rapid and simplified sequencing are critical to developing and delivering biopharmaceuticals faster and with less complexity. We look forward to their support given our commitment to biopharma as one of our strategic growth vectors.”