Repligen Inks $150M Deal to Buy Avitide

Repligen Corporation (RGEN), a provider of bioprocessing technologies and solutions for the manufacture of biological drugs, has inked a $150 million deal to acquire Avitide Inc., a leading chromatography developer. Shares rose 1.1% on the news, closing at $299.88 on September 16. (See Repligen stock charts on TipRanks)

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Avitide boasts diverse affinity ligand libraries and best-in-class ligand-to-resin development timelines. With Avitide on board, Repligen will be able to accelerate its Proteins business and boost its affinity ligand discovery engine. Avitide is expected to generate $10 million in revenue in 2022 and be accretive to Repligen’s adjusted earnings in 2023.

Commenting on the deal, Repligen President and CEO Tony J. Hunt said, “This acquisition builds off the excellent partnership we have already established with Navigo GmbH and really strengthens and expands our ligand discovery and development capabilities.”

Hunt added, “Together, we anticipate bringing many new products to market over the coming years, directly addressing the growing need for affinity solutions in gene therapy and other emerging modalities.”

The purchase will be paid partly in cash of $75 million, with the remaining $75 million in Repligen common stock. Additionally, Avitide will receive certain performance-based earnout payments over the next three years. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021, subject to certain closing conditions.

Recently, Leerink Partners analyst Puneet Souda maintained a Buy rating on the stock after the company announced the extension of its partnership with Cytiva to 2025 for the supply of Protein A ligands.

Souda said, “Our prior conservatism was largely driven by expectations that Cytiva would ultimately bring the entire Protein A ligand manufacturing in-house long term. But the agreement now provides strong support for growth in the Proteins segment for the next 5 years beyond the key growth drivers including Purolite and Navigo partnerships and RGEN’s own COVID Spike protein resin.”

The analyst views this extension very optimistically for RGEN and expects the demand for core mAbs, gene therapy, and COVID to be robust over the next year.

With 5 unanimous Buys, the stock commands a Strong Buy consensus rating. The average Repligen price target of $279.60 implies 6.8% downside potential to current levels. Shares have gained 105.8% over the past year.

Repligen scores a “Perfect 10” from TipRanks’ Smart Score rating system, indicating that the stock has strong potential to outperform market expectations.