Bluebird Bio Stumbles Over Secondary Offering

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By Chris Lange Updated Published
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Bluebird Bio Stumbles Over Secondary Offering

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Bluebird Bio Inc. (NASDAQ: BLUE) saw its shares dip on Wednesday after the firm announced the pricing of a secondary offering. The offering is expected to close by December 15 and is subject to customary closing conditions.

The firm said that it would be offering roughly 3.24 million shares at $185 apiece, with an overallotment option for an additional 486,486 shares. At this price the entire offering is valued up to $690 million.

Keep in mind that Bluebird has a market cap of roughly $8.4 billion, and that this offering would make up about 8.25% of the total market cap.

Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan and Cowen are acting as joint book-running managers of the offering.

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Bluebird Bio is a clinical-stage biotechnology company committed to developing potentially transformative gene therapies for severe genetic diseases and cancer.

The company intends to use the net proceeds for quite a few things:

  • To fund the potential exercise of our option to co-develop and co-promote our bb2121 product candidate, which has been exclusively licensed by Celgene Corporation, in the United States following the completion of the ongoing Phase I clinical study.
  • To fund our Phase I clinical study of our bb21217 product candidate in multiple myeloma.
  • To fund HGB-212, our Phase III clinical study of our LentiGlobin product candidate in patients with TDT who have a ß0/ß0 genotype.
  • To further build our commercial infrastructure in support of potential commercial launch of LentiGlobin in TDT in the United States and Europe pending regulatory approvals in the United States and Europe, including the completion of our internal manufacturing capacity.
  • To fund potential future development of our sickle cell program.
  • To fund the continued research and development of additional CAR T and TCR product candidates in oncology.
  • To further expand our manufacturing platform and capabilities to support our ongoing and anticipated product development efforts, and in anticipation of a potential commercial launch.

Shares of Bluebird were last seen down less than 4% at $183.75, with a consensus analyst price target of $167.06 and a 52-week range of $60.95 to $222.03.

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About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.

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