The blank check company Thursday filed with the SEC for the initial public offering. While a specific business for Helix Acquisition Corp. II has not yet been identified, the fund will target biotech.
Pictured: Building blocks spell out SPAC, Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation/iStock, Dzmitry Dzemidovich
Despite a significant drop in popularity, the Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation route to go public is apparently not dead. Life science investment firm Cormorant Asset Management filed with the SEC Thursday for a $100 million initial public offering for its second such vehicle.
The blank check company will be dubbed Helix Acquisition Corp. II, with the Nasdaq ticker symbol HLXB. Led by Bihua Chen, Cormorant has indicated interest in buying 2.5 million shares in the company in addition to a $35 million private placement upon closing. The initial public offering (IPO) value could increase to as much as $115 million with over-allotment options.
The investment firm’s first Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation (SPAC)—Helix Acquisition Corp.—scooped up MoonLake Therapeutics in 2021. The new company was renamed MoonLake Immunotherapeutics and had a combined value of $620 million. The biopharma focuses on treatments for inflammatory skin and joint diseases.
While SPACs exploded in popularity in 2020, the investment vehicle really catapulted to the forefront in 2021 when 107 such healthcare industry companies debuted. The model was attractive to many biotech companies in that it was considered a faster, cheaper option to going public via a traditional IPO. It can also be less susceptible to the volatility of the market.
However, thanks to new accounting regulations, changing tax rules and higher tax rates, the popularity has dropped significantly. The number of companies that chose the SPAC route fell in 2022 and continued the downhill trajectory in 2023.
Chen and her firm are not swayed by the loss of SPAC popularity, however. Founded in 2013, the Boston-based company primarily targets healthcare with a particular focus on the biotech sector. They’ve invested in more than 100 life sciences startups, including a recent Series A for Triveni Bio—a company with a genetics-informed precision medicine approach for inflammation and immunology disorders. Over 50 of the companies that Cormorant has invested in have completed IPOs.
Helix II has not yet selected a specific business but intends to target “healthcare related industries,” adding that its primary focus will be on the biotechnology sector, according to Thursday’s SEC filing.
Kate Goodwin is a freelance life science writer based in Des Moines, Iowa. She can be reached at kate.goodwin@biospace.com and on LinkedIn.
