BOSTON & SAN FRANCISCO & LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SV Life Sciences (SVLS), formerly Schroder Ventures Life Sciences, today announced the final closing of SV Life Sciences Fund IV (SVLS IV) with total commitments of $572 million. The Fund was significantly oversubscribed and SVLS decided to limit the final size. SVLS IV, SVLS’s fourth international life sciences fund, brings the firm’s total funds advised or managed to $1.6 billion, making it one of the largest venture capital investment groups dedicated to the life sciences sector.
The diversified investment strategy of SVLS IV remains consistent with that of earlier funds. SVLS IV will be focused on providing start-up, early stage and expansion capital to private life sciences companies in the United States and Europe. SVLS IV will invest across a range of life sciences sectors, including biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, medical devices, healthcare services and healthcare information technology (IT). Anticipated investment size will typically be between $5 and $25 million.
James Garvey, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner of SV Life Sciences in Boston, commented, “We experienced considerable success in the fundraising and were buoyed by the strength and proven track record of our team. In 2006 we had an exceptional year with sales of portfolio investments reaching over $2 billion as M&A activity in biotech and medical devices continued. This gave investors strong returns on their investment. We believe that our diversified investment strategy, across sectors, stages and geographies, will continue to provide broad investment opportunities for SVLS IV.”
“Part of the strategy for the SVLS IV fundraising was to broaden and diversify the investor base to ensure a good balance of commitments in the fund,” Mr. Garvey continued. “As such, we are delighted to have attracted 32 high quality new investors to add to a strong group of dedicated investors from previous funds. This increased investor base spans globally with a concentration in the United States and Europe and includes more foundations, endowments, and family offices.”
Of the total commitments, approximately 60 percent came from the United States and 40 percent from Europe and Rest of World.
Managing partners of the SVLS investment team include James Garvey, Kate Bingham, Lutz Giebel, Eugene Hill, David Milne, and Michael Ross. They are a well established group of investment professionals whose complementary backgrounds and expertise spans the full range of the life sciences industry and balances investing expertise with deep operating experience at both private and publicly traded life sciences companies. Don Nelson, Chief Business Officer, led the fundraising for the Group.
Venture capital funds advised by SVLS have invested in the life sciences industry since the early 1980s and have backed over 100 life sciences companies globally. The existing funds, SV Life Sciences Funds I, II and III, were closed in 1994, 1999 and 2003 respectively, with total committed capital of over $800 million. SVLS also manages International Biotechnology Trust plc (Ticker: IBT), a London Stock Exchange listed investment trust with a market cap of $210 million.
SV Life Sciences has US offices in Boston and the San Francisco Bay Area, and a European office in London. For additional information on SVLS, please visit www.svlsa.com.
Notes to Editors:
SV Life Sciences (SVLS) was established in 1993, in London and Boston, to take advantage of the global nature of the life sciences opportunity and to enable active deal leadership in the key markets. The SVLS team is composed of 28 professionals with extensive life sciences investment, strategic, operational, scientific and clinical experience.
In addition to SV Life Sciences Fund IV, SVLS advises and/or manages three other private equity funds, SVLS Funds I, II and III. These funds provide start-up, early stage and expansion capital to life sciences companies in North America and Europe. Approximately half of the investments have been in the biotech sector with the remaining half split equally between the medical device and healthcare service sectors. This broad sector, stage and regional diversification and capability, which will be continued in SVLS Fund IV, is relatively unique when compared to other peer life sciences focused venture capital funds. Further information is available at www.svlsa.com.
The Group also has a capability in the public markets with a dedicated team that manages International Biotechnology Trust plc, a publicly quoted investment trust listed on the London Stock Exchange (Ticker: IBT), with a total net asset value of approximately $210 million. IBT primarily invests in high growth, development stage public life sciences companies with an emphasis on small cap US biotechnology companies. Further information is available at www.internationalbiotrust.com.
Examples of successful exits (greater than 5 times capital returned) include Chiroscience, Eyetech Pharmaceuticals, GelTex Pharmaceuticals, GlycoFi, Kinetix Pharmaceuticals, LaserVision, LeukoSite, PowerMed, Rinat Neuroscience, Shire Pharmaceuticals, (Ticker: SHP, SVLS was the founding investor in 1987) and Triangle Pharmaceuticals. For a complete list of current investments please see the SVLSA website at www.svlsa.com.
Contacts
SV Life Sciences James Garvey/Donald Nelson/Denise Marks, +1 617-367-8100 or
Kureczka/Martin Associates Joan Kureczka, +1 415-821-2413 (Media) Jkureczka@comcast.net
