Amryt, a Dublin-based biopharma group specialising in treatments for rare diseases, said on Tuesday that it has completed a $125 million (€110.2m) debt refinancing, with some of the proceeds being lined up to buy back a portion of its shares.
The new debt facility has been provided by a unit of California-based investment firm Ares Management Corporation at an interest rate that currently equates to weighted average of 5.87 per cent, assuming it is fully drawn down.
Most of the fresh funds are being used to repay an existing $95 million loan, which carries a much higher interest rate of 13 per cent and is due to mature in September 2024.
Some of the proceeds from the new financing will be used for “general corporate and product development purposes” at Nasdaq-listed Amryt as well as “potentially for shareholder-approved share repurchase programmes”.
It comes after Amryt, led by chief executive Joe Wiley, said earlier this month that it would be seeking shareholder approval at a general meeting on March 2nd to repurchase some of its shares, including ordinary stock represented by so-called American depository shares traded on Nasdaq. It has not indicated how much it plans to to spend on a share buy-back programme.
Amryt had $123 million of cash on its balance sheet at the end of September and was forecasting full-year 2021 revenue of $220 million to $225 million, representing as much as 23 per cent annual growth.
Top-selling product
Its top-selling product Metreleptin is mainly used as a therapy for people that do not have enough leptin hormone in their body. Leptin’s main role is long-term regulation of energy, including the amount of calories people eat and expend, as well as how much fat they store.
Amryt’s second main product, Lomitapide, treats individuals with a genetic disorder where their bodies are unable remove so-called low density lipoprotein, or bad cholesterol, from the blood.
It has a number of other products in various stages of clinical trials.
Dr Wiley said that the debt refinancing “further strengthens our balance sheet, significantly reduces our interest costs and extends the maturity profile of our term debt facilities through 2027”.
