Ayrmid’s offer is 50% higher than bluebird’s previously announced deal with Carlyle and SK Capital Partners.
Bluebird bio on Friday confirmed it has received an unsolicited take-over offer from the Ireland-based investment firm Ayrmid Ltd, threatening to come between a previously announced deal between the biotech and the investment firms Carlyle and SK Capital Partners.
Ayrmid is offering to buy bluebird for $4.50 per share—a 50% increase over Carlyle and SK Capital’s bid of $3.00 per share. Both suitors are also offering a one-time contingent value right of $6.84 per share, payable once a certain milestone is hit. Bluebird is currently reviewing Ayrmid’s proposal and will work with external legal and financial advisors, according to its press announcement.
In the meantime, bluebird “remains subject” to the terms of its merger deal with Carlyle and SK Capital, and its Board maintains its support for the terms of the original merger.
Bluebird has been facing financial problems in recent months. The company had about $119 million in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash by the end of the third quarter last year—just enough to support its operations into the first quarter of 2025. At the time, bluebird forecasted that it would hit a break-even point sometime in the back half of this year.
Building a business on the back of gene therapies has proven difficult for bluebird, which in the third quarter of 2024 brought in just $10.6 billion in total net revenues for its three products: sickle cell therapy Lyfgenia, beta-thalassemia drug Zynteglo and cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy medication Skysona.
In its struggle to stay afloat, bluebird in September 2024 lowered its headcount by 25%, a move that would help it staunch expenses by some 20%.
The biotech has also entered into a handful of financing deals, including back-to-back opportunities in December 2023 that gave its cash position a $250 million boost. Bluebird at the time undertook an underwritten public offering for $150 million and entered into an accounts receivable factoring agreement with financing firm Alterna Capital Solutions, giving it $100 million.
A few months later, in March 2024, bluebird entered into a five-year loan deal with Hercules Capital, accessing up to $175 million in debt financing.
Despite these arrangements, bluebird remained in dire financial straits in the spring of 2024, forcing the biotech to undergo a comprehensive review of its strategic options. In its press announcement on Friday, bluebird pointed out that it had entered into negotiations with Ayrmid during this period but received no proposal.
Last month, that review culminated in a decision to go private in the deal with Carlyle and SK Capital.
