Andreas Halvorsen Discloses Stake in Urovant Sciences

Halvorsen's Viking made one of the largest-ever private biotech investments in its parent company

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Oct 13, 2018
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Andreas Halvorsen (Trades, Portfolio)’s Viking Global Investors disclosed Thursday that it holds a 75.6% stake in urologic biopharmaceutical company Urovant Sciences Ltd. (UROV, Financial) through its private backing of the company’s parent.

Halvorsen made the holding known because Urovant went public on Oct. 1. The company originated as one of 13 “Vants” developed by umbrella owner Roivant Sciences. Each “Vant” focuses on research, development and commercialization of treatments for a specified disease. Founded by Vivek Ramaswamy in 2014, the Switzerland-based Roivant often acquires promising drugs discarded by larger biopharmaceutical companies.

Hedge fund Viking Global became involved when it invested an undisclosed amount in the private company in July 2016 coinciding with the appointment of MIT professor Andrew Lo to Roivant’s board. Ramaswamy told Tech Crunch that the investment constituted “one of the largest, if not the largest, private financing of a biotech company in history.”

According to filings dated Oct. 10, Viking Global does not directly own the stake in Urovant, but it has shares of Roivant, which directly holds 22,703,669 shares. Viking filed the stake because it has the right to vote unanimously with two other major shareholders to override certain decisions of Roivant’s board, giving it “dispositive power” over the shares.

Urovant stock traded for $13.49 per share Thursday, down from its initial public offering price of $14 per share.

The $405.05 million market cap company focuses on urologic conditions, with one product candidate in Phase 3 clinical trial and a second in Phase 1.

Ramaswamy took another of Roivant’s subsidiaries, Myovant Sciences Ltd. (MYOV, Financial), public in 2016. Shares of the women’s health and prostate care company gained almost 76% since its IPO.

Viking Global, which has $26 billion in assets under management, has been active in the health care space in recent years. Health care stocks occupied 17.55% of its public long portfolio as of the second quarter, making it the second largest sector represented. Its top holdings in the sector were Anthem Inc. (ANTM, Financial), Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (TMO, Financial) and Biomarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (BMRN).

See Andreas Halvorsen (Trades, Portfolio)'s portfolio here.

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