PPD, an LBO'd contract research organization that provides drug development services, filed on Thursday with the SEC to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering. However, the deal size is likely a placeholder for an IPO that we estimate could raise $1 billion.
In 2011, PPD was acquired by Hellman & Friedman and the Carlyle Group for $3.9 billion, the third-largest leveraged buyout that year. The company served all of the top 50 biopharmaceutical companies in the world in 2018, as ranked by research and development spending, and was involved in 66 drug approvals.
The Wilmington, NC-based company was founded in 1985 and booked $4.0 billion in revenue for the 12 months ended September 30, 2019. It plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol PPD. PPD filed confidentially on November 12, 2019. Barclays, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, BofA Securities, Credit Suisse, Jefferies, UBS Investment Bank, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Evercore ISI, HSBC, and Mizuho Securities are the joint bookrunners on the deal. No pricing terms were disclosed.
