Benevolent AI aims to defy Spac doom

Biopharma groups that have listed via a deal with a special purpose acquisition company have had a torrid time of it – particularly in the last few weeks as the emergence of the Omicron variant wiped billions from the stock markets. Hoping to defy the odds is the drug discovery company Benevolent AI, which today announced the biggest deal with a European Spac yet seen. Accounting for the transaction costs, Benevolent hopes to raise €390m ($441m) by merging with Amsterdam-listed Odyssey Acquisitions, including €135m of fully-committed Pipe funding and €300m of gross cash held by Odyssey. The deal confers on Benevolent a pre-money valuation of €1.1bn and a post-money valuation of €1.5bn, prior to any redemptions. Astrazeneca, which has already partnered with Benevolent on drug discovery, is one of the group’s new investors. Benevolent will have to work hard growing its market cap if the performance of other Spacs is anything to go by. Since 2020, only one Spac-listed biotech, Cerevel, has seen significant success on the markets, tripling in value. The rest of the cohort has been so woeful that even including Cerevel, the median share price change to close yesterday was a loss of 21%.