Cancer drugmaker Apollomics Inc. agreed to to go public through a merger with blank-check company Maxpro Capital Acquisition Corp.
The deal values the company at about $1 billion, assuming investors in Maxpro don’t redeem shares before it closes, according to a statement, confirming a Bloomberg News report. That includes $105 million in expected securities-sales proceeds that Apollomics plans to keep on its balance sheet for growth opportunities.
“Our goal was to find an exciting company with a growing pipeline of innovative product candidates that could positively affect the lives of millions of people,” Moses Chen, chief executive officer of Maxpro, said in the statement.
The market for special purpose acquisition companies has been in the doldrums after a bumper 2021. SPACs have raised $15.4 billion via initial public offerings this year, down 88 percent on the same period in 2021, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Apollomics is working on nine types of drugs for difficult-to-treat forms of lung cancer and leukemia, according to its website.
Maxpro, backed by the Taiwanese venture capital firm Maxpro Ventures Ltd., raised about $104 million in an IPO last year.
Apollomics is expected to trade on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol APLM after the deal closes, which is expected to happen in the first quarter.
