Private Placements: Biotech had a busy month in September. Ten of the 25 private placements and 42% of private placement volume were Biotech related. Sleep Solutions, which raised $20M and works structurally with sleep apnea, is classified Healthcare. If you combine these two related categories, Healthcare-Biotech was the overwhelming recipient of dollars in September. Sleep Solutions ($20M) and Cell-SCI ($19M) were somewhat balanced on the IT side by VirtuStream which raised $25M. The remainder of transactions was spread across technology and finance sectors with no definable pattern. As you can imagine with the September emphasis on Biotech, the number and volume of deals tilted heavily toward Maryland instead of Virginia. Seventy percent of the September money raised landed in Maryland. The District had one small private placement and nothing registered for West Virginia.
M&A: M&A transactions were spread widely across the spectrum of industries prevalent in this region. Government-oriented transactions and Commercial IT Services led the pack, each with 3 transactions. Combined, they fairly represent (for one month) the predominance of IT services companies and jobs in the region. Other sectors with two transactions each include Healthcare, Telecom, and Media & Publishing. What is missing is what is most interesting—only one tiny Biotech M&A deal. Compare that with the dominance that Biotech showed in fundraising. We will eventually look at more than one month’s data before arriving at any conclusions. In terms of dispersion, Virginia registered 14 transactions to Maryland’s 9 (with one in D.C.), but the $ volume was much closer to even between the two states. The stats this month were dominated by two large deals (SkyTerra and Iridium), which reside on opposite sides of the Potomac.
Public Offerings: Having any public market is a good thing in these times, and September was unusually active. Amazingly, at the end of the month, there actually was a $160M local technology IPO—Iridium—led by some of your favorite regional investment banks—Raymond James, RBC and Stifel. Iridium is not exactly a new name, but after the simultaneous buyout led by Greenhill, the company was completely re-launched and had to attract new investors to a new plan, which it did smartly. In addition to Iridium, there were 5 Follow-On offerings, raising over $1 billion in total. A whopping $650 went to Richmond’s Genworth Financial, a worldwide insurance and asset management company. Smithfield Foods raised $300 million. Down well below $100M each were two bank holding companies and one more tech company—GSE in Maryland.
