JANUARY 9, 2012, 4:54 PM
By Shira Ovide
One hedge fund is on a winning streak when it comes to takeovers of companies developing hepatitis C treatments.
QVT Financial, started by ex-Deutsche Bank prop traders, is among the largest shareholders of Inhibitex, which agreed over the weekend to a $2.5 billion acquisition by Bristol-Myers Squibb.
According to regulatory filings, QVT first bought shares for about $1 each in 2009, and also took warrants to acquire millions more shares at $1.46 each. That means QVT’s stock is worth about $105 million at Bristol-Myers’s takeover price, or very roughly 25 times what QVT paid for its investment in 2009.
Now the slightly bad news: QVT missed out on an even bigger windfall because it sold a block of Inhibitex last fall, just months before the company’s sale.
But this isn’t the only biotech windfall for QVT. In November, Pharmasset — another company developing new treatments for hepatitis C infections – agreed to sell itself for nearly $11 billion. QVT is among the biggest holders of Pharmasset as well, and the fund’s holdings are valued at more than $150 million at the takeover price.
QVT has been an investor in Pharmasset since 2008, when Pharmasset’s shares were trading below $10 each. Gilead Sciences has agreed to pay $137 a share for Pharmasset.
Anadys, a third hep C treatment company in which QVT owned a stake, was bought in November. The purchase price of $3.70 a share, and QVT paid roughly $2.50 per share for its stake in Anadys, according to calculations from a regulatory filing in early 2011.
–Scott Thurm contributed to this post.
