UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM
CURRENT REPORT
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Item 1.01 | Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement |
On January 21, 2021, Merus N.V. (the “Company”) entered into an underwriting agreement (the “Underwriting Agreement”) with Jefferies LLC and SVB Leerink LLC, as representatives of the several underwriters named therein (collectively, the “Underwriters”), in connection with the issuance and sale by the Company in a public offering of 4,848,485 common shares of the Company, nominal value €0.09 per share, at a public offering price of $24.75 per share, less underwriting discounts and commissions, pursuant to an effective shelf registration statement on Form S-3 (Registration No. 333-233367), which was declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on May 5, 2020, and the registration statement on Form S-3 (Registration No. 333-252282), as amended, that was filed by the Company pursuant to Rule 462(b) with the SEC on January 21, 2020, and a related prospectus supplement. Under the terms of the Underwriting Agreement, the Company also granted the Underwriters an option exercisable for 30 days to purchase up to an additional 727,272 common shares at the public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions. On January 21, 2021, the Underwriters exercised this option in full. The closing of the offering is expected to occur on or about January 25, 2021, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.
The Company expects to receive net proceeds from the offering of approximately $112.3 million, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by the Company. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from this offering to advance the clinical development of its product candidates, for preclinical research and technology development and for working capital and general corporate purposes. The Company believes that its cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, together with the net proceeds from this offering and expected proceeds of $40.0 million from an upfront payment pursuant to the terms of the collaboration and license agreement (the “Collaboration Agreement”) entered into between the Company and Eli Lilly and Company (“Eli Lilly”) on January 18, 2021 and approximately $20.0 million from the sale of common shares to Eli Lilly in connection with the Collaboration Agreement, will fund its operations at least into the second half of 2024.
The Underwriting Agreement contains customary representations, warranties and agreements by the Company, customary conditions to closing, indemnification obligations of the Company and the Underwriters, including for liabilities under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, other obligations of the parties and termination provisions.
The foregoing description of the Underwriting Agreement is not complete and is qualified in its entirety by reference to the full text of the Underwriting Agreement, a copy of which is filed as Exhibit 1.1 to this Current Report on Form 8-K and is incorporated by reference herein.
NautaDutilh N.V., Dutch counsel to the Company, has issued an opinion to the Company, dated January 22, 2021, regarding the validity of the common shares to be issued and sold in the offering. A copy of the opinion is filed as Exhibit 5.1 to this Current Report on Form 8-K.
Forward Looking Statements
This Current Report on Form 8-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements contained in the Current Report on form 8-K that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including without limitation, statements regarding the completion of the proposed offering, the anticipated net proceeds from the offering, the Company’s intended use of proceeds from the offering and the sufficiency of the Company’s cash, cash equivalents, marketable securities, net proceeds from the offering, upfront payment pursuant to the Collaboration Agreement and proceeds from the sale of common shares to Eli Lilly to fund the Company’s operations. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the following: our need for additional funding, which may not be available and which may require us to restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights to our technologies or Biclonics®, Triclonics™ and multispecific antibody candidates; potential delays in regulatory approval, which would impact our ability to commercialize our product candidates and affect our ability to generate revenue; the lengthy and expensive process of clinical drug development, which has an uncertain outcome; the unpredictable nature of our early stage development efforts for marketable drugs; potential delays in enrollment of patients, which could affect the receipt of necessary regulatory approvals; our reliance on third parties to conduct our clinical trials and the potential for those third parties to not perform satisfactorily; impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic; we may not identify suitable Biclonics® or bispecific antibody candidates under our collaborations or our collaborators may fail to perform adequately under our collaborations; our reliance on third parties to manufacture our product candidates, which may delay, prevent or impair our development and commercialization efforts; protection of our proprietary technology; our patents may be found invalid, unenforceable, circumvented by competitors and our patent applications may be found not to comply with
the rules and regulations of patentability; we may fail to prevail in potential lawsuits for infringement of third-party intellectual property; and our registered or unregistered trademarks or trade names may be challenged, infringed, circumvented or declared generic or determined to be infringing on other marks.
These and other important factors discussed under the caption “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on November 5, 2020 and in its other reports filed with the SEC, could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements made in this Current Report on Form 8-K. Any such forward-looking statements represent management’s estimates as of the date of this Current Report on Form 8-K. While the Company may elect to update such forward-looking statements at some point in the future, it disclaims any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause its views to change, except as required under applicable law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company’s views as of any date subsequent to the date of this Current Report on Form 8-K.
Item 9.01 | Financial Statements and Exhibits. |
(d) Exhibits.
Exhibit |
Exhibit Description | |
1.1 | Underwriting Agreement, dated as of January 21, 2021, between Merus N.V. and Jefferies LLC and SVB Leerink LLC, as representatives of the underwriters named therein. | |
5.1 | Opinion of NautaDutilh N.V. | |
23.1 | Consent of NautaDutilh N.V. (included in Exhibit 5.1). | |
104 | Cover Page Interactive Data File (embedded within the Inline XBRL document). |
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.
MERUS N.V | ||||||
Date: January 22, 2021 | By: | /s/ Sven (Bill) Ante Lundberg | ||||
Name: | Sven (Bill) Ante Lundberg | |||||
Title: | President, Chief Executive Officer and Principal Financial Officer |