Editor’s note: Durham-based contract drug manufacturer Patheon is gearing up for an IPO that could generate as much as $700 million. NCBiotech Writer Jim Shamp offers an overview of the company and its growing presence in North Carolina. Also, check links with this post for past WRAL TechWire coverage of the company.
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – Patheon, a global pharmaceutical company headquartered in Durham, is embarking on an initial public offering of stock that it hopes will raise up to $700 million.
Patheon said its IPO will include 30,487,805 of its ordinary shares for an expected price between $19.00 and $22.00 per share.
The company is selling 25,609,756 ordinary shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol PTHN. Separately, a stockholder is selling 4,878,049 ordinary shares. Patheon will not receive any proceeds from the sale of ordinary shares by the selling stockholder, the company says.
Patheon is a significant contributor to North Carolina’s reputation as a world leader in contract manufacturing. It’s one of the top three contract manufacturers in the industry, operating 12 commercial-scale production facilities around the world that employ some 8,000 people. That includes nearly 1,600 employees working at its three North Carolina campuses:
- 1,025 at its huge Greenville manufacturing site, a 1.5-million-square-foot complex of 29 buildings on 640 acres, the largest contract manufacturing facility in North America;
- 415 at its Banner Life Sciences factory in High Point, the world’s second-largest pharmaceutical business focused on delivering proprietary softgel formulations that make oral medications easier to swallow;
- 150 at its headquarters facility in Durham.
The company has announced plans to add 488 jobs to its sterile-fill facility in Greenville by 2019 as part of a planned $159 million expansion there.
