Transaction Case Studies
M&A ADVISOR AND PIPE PLACEMENT AGENT FOR $340M ACQUISITION AND $60M PIPE
Situation Assessment
- Locust Walk Acquisition Corp. (LWAC) raised $175M as a SPAC with the intent to merge with a suitable biopharmaceutical company with a certain pre-determined criteria
- Locust Walk served as the Manager for the SPAC and deal execution support for the management and board
- eFFECTOR Therapeutics (NASDAQ: EFTR) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of selective translation regulator inhibitors (STRIs) as a novel class of oncology drugs
- EFTR sought to merge with a SPAC and raise capital to fund its clinical development programs
Key Activities
- Locust Walk performed a comprehensive strategy project to identify the right criteria for a potential merger target
- Key baseline and superlative criteria were established prior to IPO to guide the company selection process
- As M&A advisor, evaluated > 90 prospective target companies as merger candidates for LWAC
- Performed deep dive due diligence on 6 companies
- Ran a full valuation and associated analytics plus a sell-deck for 2 target companies
- Co-led the negotiation for the letter of intent (LOI) and supported definitive merger agreement negotiations
- As a Placement Agent, Locust Walk drove an efficient capital raise process
- Provided material feedback on EFTR management presentation in preparation for investor conversations
- Conducted targeted outreach campaign to top-tier life-science focused PIPE investors
- Provided extensive guidance on deal dynamics and worked in collaboration with banking syndicate and legal teams to drive financing to close
Successful Outcome
- From SPAC IPO until EFTR merger announcement, rapidly drove towards a transaction parallel processing multiple opportunities
- LWAC IPO: January 8, 2021
- LOI with EFTR signed: March 29, 2021
- Merger and PIPE announced: May 26, 2021
- De-SPAC + PIPE closed: August 25, 2021
- Successfully advised LWAC on its $340M acquisition of EFTR
- Served as PIPE placement agent raising a $60.7M PIPE financing in under 2 months