BianchiSchwald advises Athyrium on CHF 75 m loan agreement with Basilea

The listed company Basilea Pharmaceutica, a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, entered into a senior secured loan agreement with funds managed by the US company Athyrium Capital Management. The CHF 75 million senior secured loan will be used by Basilea for the repayment of its convertible bonds, which are due in December 2022 in an outstanding nominal amount of approximately CHF 117 million. The senior secured loan has a two-year term and repayment is expected to start as of Q1 2023 on a quarterly basis. Interest payments, excluding fees, are expected to amount to an average of approximately CHF 1.25 million per quarter over the term.

Formed in 2008, Athyrium is a specialized asset management company focus on investment opportunities in the global healthcare sector. The company advises funds with over $ 4.6 billion in committed capital.

BianchiSchwald has acted as Swiss legal counsel to Athyrium together with Moore​&Van Allen that acted as US counsel with respect to all legal aspects of the transaction including contractual, corporate and tax related matters. The team was led by Hélène Weidmann (partner in the corporate/m&a and capital market practice, pictured left) and Thomas Goossens (partner, head of the banking & finance practice, pictured right) and included Alexandra Schuvalov (associate, banking & finance), Joseph Merhai  (partner, head of the tax practice), as well as Gianni Fera (managing associate, tax practice), Laurent Schenker (associate, tax practice), Christoph Gasser (partner, head of the IP and data protection practice) and Thierry Burnens (associate, IP and data protection).