FibroGen closes $100 million private placement of preferreds

By Sheri Kasprzak

Atlanta, Feb. 16 - FibroGen Inc. said it has wrapped a $100 million private placement of convertible preferred stock.

Laura Hansen, a spokeswoman for FibroGen, declined to provide additional information about the offering Wednesday.

Domestic investors in the offering included Adage Capital Management, Apothecary Capital, Brookside Capital Partners, Corriente Biotechnology Partners, Duquesne Capital Management, Goldman Sachs, Janus Capital Group, Merlin BioMed Group, Och-Ziff Capital Management, The Rosewood Corp., Sigma Capital Management and T. Rowe Price. Foreign investors included Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., SMBC Capital and Bio Fund Management.

About 15% of the offering was sold to existing investors, according to a statement from FibroGen.

"We really just wanted to secure funds to advance our clinical testing," said Hansen. "We wanted to get out there and talk to U.S. institutional investors. We've been kind of flying under the radar screen, so we wanted to get out there and talk to investors."

Credit Suisse First Boston was the placement agent in the offering.

Based in San Francisco, FibroGen is a biotechnology-based drug discovery company. It plans to use the proceeds from the deal to increase staffing and the scope of its clinical activities, including the expansion of its anemia programs and the continued study of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and diabetic nephropathy.

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