Anteris on track for 2Q22 NASDAQ dual listing despite more potential offers – CEO

17:17 AEDT, 16 February 2022

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Anteris Technologies [ASX:AVR], a Brisbane-based Australian medical technology company, remains on track for its planned dual listing on NASDAQ in the second quarter of this year, said CEO Wayne Paterson, who is based in the company’s Eagan, Minnesota office.

This is despite the company having received and rejected a merger proposal with NASDAQ-listed special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Medicus Sciences Acquisition Corp [NASDAQ:MSAC] this week and expectations that it could receive more offers, Paterson said.

Anteris rejected the proposal as SPACs generally can be very dilutive and tend not to make sense for companies that are already publicly listed, Paterson said, adding that it expects any additional takeover offers to come from strategic investors.

In November 2021, Paterson told this news service that exact timing for the Q22022 dual listing would depend on new data from human clinical trials for its world-first Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) DurAVR device. The company could attract takeover offers prior to or post a dual listing, he said.

Since speaking to this news service last November, when it had a AUD 80m (USD 57m) market cap, Anteris’s market cap has increased to AUD 230m, 75.9% up year to date. It currently has a net present value (NPV) of AUD 900m, Paterson said. The first human data late last year showed 50% superiority of DurAVR, compared with incumbent offerings, he noted.

The global TAVR market is forecast to be USD 10bn by 2025 with most of the market share in the hands of aortic valve manufacturers Edwards Life Sciences[NYSE:EW] and Medtronic [NYSE:MDT], he said.

Anteris’s DurAVR has a potential USD 5bn revenue opportunity on the basis of 50% market share, given its data findings so far and given that it differentiates from these two players in that its offering is more durable as it can last 10 years without calcifying, restores normal pre-disease hemodynamics performance, creates a wider valve opening and better blood flow, and is easy to implant, Paterson said.

It also has the potential to fill the treatment gap for younger patients needing longer lasting and better working valves, with the average age of aortic valve disease sufferers having decreased from 85 to 73 in the past two years, he noted.

Anteris told this news service last year it had engaged Minneapolis, Minnesota-based investment bank Piper Sandler as its M&A advisor and had mandated all necessary advisors for the listing.

Anteris has strong medical backing with some 35% of its share register held by physician-led funds and funds related to physician groups, with the largest being New York-based SIO Capital Management with 12%, followed by global investment manager L1 Capital with some 10%, Paterson said.

by Louise Weihart in Sydney