US-based biopharmaceutical company Atara Biosciences raised $55m from an initial public offering last week, issuing 5 million shares priced at $11.00 each.
Spun out from pharmaceutical firm Amgen in 2012, Atara raised $72m across two rounds from investors including Amgen’s corporate venturing subsidiary, Amgen Ventures, and another pharmaceutical company, Celgene.
Amgen’s stake was diluted from 8.6% to 7.7% through the offering, while Celgene retains a 6.5% share.
Other notable shareholders post-IPO are Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (13.8%), Baupost Group (12.9%), Domain Associates (10.6%), DAG Ventures (9.8%) and Inmobiliaria Carso (6.9%).
Atara intends to use the proceeds from the offering together with its existing cash holdings to advance two of its product candidates, which are being developed to treat cancer and renal disease respectively, through Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials.
Goldman Sachs and Citigroup Global Markets are the joint book-running managers for the IPO, while Jefferies is co-manager. They have the option to buy another 750,000 shares, which would increase the size of the offering to almost $63.3m.