GHENT, Belgium, 28 February 2013 - Ablynx [Euronext Brussels: ABLX], the biopharmaceutical company  focused on the discovery and development of Nanobodies®, announces today that it has raised €31.5  million through a private placement of new shares via an accelerated bookbuilding procedure announced  on Wednesday 27 February 2013 after the market closed.     The private placement has allowed Ablynx to place 4,377,919 new shares with a range of domestic and  international institutional investors and qualified institutional buyers in the United States at a price of  €7.2 per share, a 6.7% discount on the previous closing price. This represents 10.0% of the current  number of outstanding shares and will bring the total number of shares after the issue to 48,157,116. The  new shares will be admitted to trading on NYSE Euronext Brussels following their issuance, which is  expected to take place on 5 March 2013.    The private placement was oversubscribed and certain pre-IPO shareholders and warrant holders sold  1,872,081 shares at the same price in conjunction with this transaction.    The funds will be used by Ablynx to:  ? maintain the momentum of ALX-0061 and review paths (e.g. co-development, fund additional  clinical trials, retain (co-) promotion rights) which could allow the value of this asset to be  maximized;  ? allow flexibility in the structure and timing of any potential deals to license clinical assets such as  caplacizumab (anti-vWF) and ALX-0171 (anti-RSV);   ? initiate, advance and/or accelerate the pre-clinical development for wholly- and co-owned  programmes with a broad range of risk-return profiles; and  ? for general corporate purposes.  |