Milbank Advises Genomma Lab Internacional on $234 Million IPO
Genomma Lab Internacional Becomes the First Pharmaceutical Company to List on the Mexican Stock Exchange and the Only Venture Capital Backed Company in North America to Go Public in Second Quarter
NEW YORK, July 10, 2008 – The international law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy represented the fast-growing Mexican pharmaceutical company Genomma Lab Internacional and its selling stockholders in the company’s initial international common stock offering. Along with the initial public offering of the Mexican Stock Exchange (which Milbank also worked on), Genomma Lab is the second initial international offering of common stock by a Mexican company to close within a matter of weeks. The offering raised approximately $234 million and was underwritten by UBS Securities and Merrill Lynch. It involved a registered initial public offering on the Mexican Stock Exchange and a Rule 144A/Regulation S offering internationally.
The Milbank team was led by partner Michael Fitzgerald, along with associates Arturo Carrillo, Stephen Diamond, Pedro Reyes, Kristi Schaeffer and international attorney Marco Isoard. Tax support was provided by partner Bruce Kayle.
Fitzgerald noted, “This transaction represented a number of firsts, including the first pharmaceutical company to list on the Mexican Stock Exchange and the first private equity sponsored company from Mexico to access the international equity markets in several years. The successful placement of this offering is all the more remarkable since the second quarter of this year marked the first quarter since 1978 that a venture capital backed company had not gone public in the U.S., making Genomma Lab the only venture capital backed company to go public in North America in the quarter.”
The offering on June 18 was oversubscribed and the common shares were priced at 16 pesos per share (US$1.55). About 74 percent of the offering was sold to international investors. On the first day of trading on the Mexican Stock Exchange, the shares experienced a healthy gain of 4.2 percent and closed at 16.67 pesos per share.
Genomma Lab, based in Mexico City, specializes in over-the-counter pharmaceutical and personal care products and is the fastest growing pharmaceutical company in Mexico.
UBS Investment Bank and Merrill Lynch acted as joint bookrunners for the offering, with IXE Casa de Bolsa, IXE Grupo Financiero and Casa de Bolsa Santander acting as Mexican underwriters.
Milbank’s Latin America Practice Group:
Milbank’s Latin America Practice Group has played a prominent role in some of the region’s most innovative and complex transactions, including securities offerings, M & A, project financings and restructurings. Milbank’s Latin America Practice Group is renowned for its leadership in sophisticated cross-border transactions and combines both the transactional and regulatory expertise necessary to successfully negotiate and close innovative securities offerings and other transactions across a wide range of industries.
About Milbank
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP is a preeminent global law firm that for more than 140 years has provided innovative legal solutions in many of the world’s largest, most complex, “first-ever” corporate transactions and litigation. Our transactional expertise includes capital markets, corporate finance and transactions, project finance, acquisition finance, and other major fields of law practice. Milbank litigation teams resolve disputes involving mergers and acquisitions, proxy battles, financings and securities offerings, intellectual property, white collar crime, and corporate restructurings, among others. Our clients range from prominent multinational financial, industrial and commercial enterprises to governments, institutions and individuals. The Firm is headquartered in New York with offices in Beijing, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Munich, Singapore, Tokyo, and Washington, DC.