Oakville, Ont.-based Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. announced Friday that Big Pharma Split Corp. has completed its initial public offering of 1,360,000 preferred shares and 1,360,000 Class A shares for combined gross proceeds of $34 million.
Both preferred and Class A shares began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange Nov. 24.
Big Pharma Split Corp. will invest in an initially equally-weighted portfolio of 10 issuers consisting of equity securities selected from a universe of pharmaceutical issuers that are listed on a North American exchange, pay a dividend and have options in respect of its equity securities that are sufficiently liquid to permit Harvest to write options in respect of such securities.
The portfolio will be comprised mainly of the largest pharmaceutical issuers in the investable universe.
The investment objectives for the preferred shares are to provide unitholders with fixed cumulative preferential quarterly cash distributions of 12.5¢ per preferred share (50¢ per year, or 5% per year on the $10 issue price) until Dec. 31, 2022, and to return of the original issue price to holders on the maturity date.
The investment objectives for the Class A shares are to provide unitholders with regular monthly cash distributions aimed to be 10.31¢ per Class A share ($1.2372 per year or 8.25% per year on the $15 issue price) and with the opportunity for growth in net asset value per Class A share.
Harvest is the manager, portfolio manager and promoter of Big Pharma Split Corp.
Over the next 30 days, Big Pharma Split Corp. is granting agents of the offering an over-allotment option to buy up to an additional 204,000 preferred shares and up to an additional 204,000 Class A shares.