Stoke Therapeutics, a genetic disease therapy developer backed by life sciences real estate developer Alexandria Real Estate Equities, closed its initial public offering at just over $163m on Friday.
The offering initially raised about $142m when Stoke priced its shares at $18.00 on Wednesday last week. However, its share price closed at $26.00 on Thursday and had reached $27.29 by the time the Nasdaq Global Select Market closed trading on Friday.
Joint book-running managers Cowen and Company, JP Morgan Securities and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) and lead manager Canaccord Genuity subsequently took up the over-allotment option and bought an additional 1.18 million shares to complete the IPO.
Stoke is working on treatments for severe genetic diseases that are intended to work by upregulating protein expression to normal levels in specific genes. It had raised $128m in funding before the offering, including $38m from founding investor Apple Tree Partners up to January 2018.
Alexandria Real Estate Equities’ venture capital arm, Alexandria Venture Investments, joined Apple Tree, RTW Investments, Perceptive Advisors, Redmile Group, RA Capital Management, Cormorant Asset Management, Sphera Funds Management and funds managed by Janus Henderson Investors to add $90m in an October series B round.
The only two shareholders that owned stakes sized at 5% or above pre-IPO were Apple Tree Partners, which held 48.9% at the time of the flotation, and RTW, which owned 8.9%.
