Mubadala and Novo Holdings invest €250m in drug discovery firm Evotec

Mubadala will invest €200m to subscribe to 5.6% of Evotec's outstanding shares, while Novo is investing €50m

Mubadala and Novo Holdings are jointly investing €250 million in drug discovery and development firm Evotec

Mubadala Investment Company, Abu Dhabi’s strategic investment arm, and Novo Holdings, are investing €250 million ($295m) in drug discovery and development firm Evotec.

Mubadala will invest €200m to subscribe to about 5.6 per cent of Evotec's outstanding shares, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. Evotec’s existing shareholder Novo will invest €50m to "reinforce" its ownership of approximately 11 per cent in the company.

The deal is part of Evotec’s capital increase through a private placement. The firm will issue 11,478,298 new shares in total to Mubadala and Novo, boosting its cash reserves by €250m to accelerate its growth. The Frankfurt-listed firm will issue new shares at €21.7802 per share.

"There is no reason for us to slow down our mission in spite of the ongoing pandemic," Dr Werner Lanthaler, chief executive of Evotec, said. "We can and want to grow even faster and see a lot of positive momentum in our business strategy."

This investment, he said, allows the company to create the world-leading “R&D Autobahn to Cures”.

The transaction boosts Evotec’s liquidity reserves to more than €500m, generating a net cash position of more than €150m, the company’s chief financial officer, Enno Spillner, said.

“We have been impressed by the quality and depth of Evotec’s management team, the company’s distinctive business model, their proprietary technological platforms and the unique role they play in the rapidly growing universe of pharmaceutical & biotech R&D,” Camilla Macapili Languille, head of Pharma & MedTech at Mubadala, said.

“We will work with the company and its shareholders to support Evotec’s strategic growth both through this investment and our extensive institutional network.”

Evotec is among the world's top drug discovery firms with 3,400 employees at 14 global sites including Germany, the US, France, Italy, the UK, and Austria. The company aims to improve global access to more precise and effective medicines. Its future investments will accelerate the next strategic growth phase, according to the statement.

The company is currently evaluating investment opportunities in prediction technologies for biologics, novel cell & gene therapies and greater access to patient-derived material and data for precision medicine processes. The company is also focusing on proprietary technology platforms and machine learning as it looks to expand its footprint in the US and Europe.

Mubadala, with its $232 billion asset base spanning six continents, invests on the behalf of the Abu Dhabi government. It has increasingly looked to invest in new technologies, especially in the health care sector and MedTech with the pandemic augmenting the pivot.

The company is looking to increase its investments “significantly” in the life sciences and medical technology sector, according to the company's group chief executive, Khaldoon Al Mubarak.