BioCentury
ARTICLE | Financial News

Ligand raises $225 million in note deal

August 14, 2014 1:34 AM UTC

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:LGND) raised $225 million through the sale of unsecured convertible senior notes to institutional buyers. The notes bear interest at 0.75%, mature on Aug. 15, 2019 and initially convert at $75.05, a 40% premium to the company's close of $53.65 on Monday when the company proposed the offering. Concurrently, Ligand expects to repurchase about $40 million of stock, or about 700,000 shares. On Monday, Ligand said its board has authorized a one-year $200 million share repurchase program. Ligand had about 20.8 million shares outstanding prior to Wednesday's announced repurchase. BofA Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank are joint book-running managers (see BioCentury Extra, Aug. 11). ...