On 17 August 2021, Kantonsspital St. Gallen, a public-law institution, successfully launched and priced its issuance of CHF 275 million in aggregate principal amount of CHF 150 million 0.30% bonds 2021-2036 and CHF 125 million 0.05% bonds 2021-2031. The bonds are expected to be provisionally admitted to trading on 29 September 2021, and application will be made for definitive admission to trading and listing of the bonds, on the SIX Swiss Exchange. Closing is expected on 30 September 2021. Zürcher Kantonalbank acted as lead manager and Raiffeisen Schweiz Genossenschaft as well as St.Galler Kantonalbank AG as co-managers. Avobis Advisory AG acted as Structuring Agent and Capital Market Adviser for the Kantonsspital St. Gallen.

On 10 August 2021, UBS Group AG successfully completed its issuance of USD
2 billion in aggregate principal amount of Fixed Rate/Fixed Rate Senior Notes due August 2027 under its Senior Debt Programme. The Notes are bail-inable (TLAC) bonds that are eligible to count towards UBS Group AG’s Swiss gone concern requirement. The Notes are governed by Swiss law and have been provisionally admitted to trading, and application has been made for definitive admission to trading and listing of the Notes, on the SIX Swiss Exchange.

Digital Realty (NYSE:DLR), the largest global provider of carrier- and cloud-neutral data center, colocation and interconnection solutions successfully offered CHF 275 million of 0.20 percent bonds due 2026 and CHF 270 million of 0.55 percent bonds due 2029. The bonds were issued by Digital Intrepid Holding B.V., an indirect wholly-owned holding and finance subsidiary of Digital Realty’s operating partnership, Digital Realty Trust, L.P and are fully and unconditionally guaranteed by Digital Realty and Digital Realty Trust, L.P. Digital Realty intends to allocate an amount equal to the net proceeds from the offering of the Swiss green bonds to finance or refinance, in whole or in part, recently completed or future green building, energy and resource efficiency and renewable energy projects, including the development and redevelopment of such projects. The Swiss green bonds are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange.

On 22 July 2021, SOPHiA GENETICS SA, a Swiss healthcare technology company dedicated to establishing the practice of data-driven medicine as the standard of care and for life sciences research, priced its USD 234 million IPO, consisting of an offering of 13,000,000 ordinary shares at a price of USD 18.00 per share. The ordinary shares have been approved for listing on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbols “SOPH”, and trading began on 23 July 2021. The offering closed on 27 July 2021. J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Cowen and Credit Suisse acted as joint book-running manager for the initial public offering.

End of July 2021, Idorsia Ltd successfully placed CHF 600 million senior unsecured convertible bonds due 2028 in a private placement with institutional investors. The net proceeds of the convertible bonds will be used to support commercial product launches in several key markets and to fund the further development of the company’s advancing late-stage pipeline. Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse AG and Goldman Sachs International were acting as Joint Bookrunners and Octavian as Selling Agent on the offering.

AC Immune SA (NASDAQ: ACIU), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering precision medicine for neurodegenerative diseases, on 27 July 2021 announced that it is acquiring Affiris SA’s portfolio of therapeutics targeting alpha-synuclein (a-syn) as well as cash for 7.1 million shares based on a price of USD 8.26 per common share of AC Immune. The acquisition is subject to customary regulatory approval in Austria and expected to complete at the beginning of Q4 2021.

Concurrent with the asset acquisition, AC Immune’s cash position, as well as its investor base, is also being strengthened by a total of USD 30 million in gross proceeds stemming from the asset acquisition and a parallel private placement transaction with a select group of investors that are adding Athos Service GmbH, First Capital Partner GmbH and MIG Fonds, the lead investors in Covid-19 vaccine innovator BioNTech SE, as new AC Immune shareholders. Gross proceeds from the private placement transaction will be USD 25 million.

On 9 April 2021, VectivBio Holding AG announced its initial public offering and listing of its shares on Nasdaq (ticker symbol VECT). VectivBio is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of innovative treatments for severe rare conditions for which there is a significant unmet medical need. Through its IPO, at USD 17 per share, VectivBio raises gross proceeds of USD 146.6 m (including greenshoe). At market close on the first day of trading, VectivBio had a market capitalization of USD 824m.