ESC Advisors: ‘Independent judgment and experience for challenging times’
Evonne Sepsis, President, ESC Advisors
Having closed four deals in the last 20 months, Evonne Sepsis and her team arrive in Boston for BioPharm America™ 2010 ready to accelerate the pace for clients of ESC Advisors, the investment banking firm she founded.
An avid marathoner and tri-athlete, she is preparing back-to-back meetings on behalf of both public and private emerging growth and mid-cap companies who have asked her to seek out opportunities for divesting or acquiring products or an outright sale of the company. The ESC team works with companies that they know and understand as well as having a deep understanding of the competitive landscape.
“These are challenging times and closing transactions can take longer than it used to, but we are incredibly tenacious and will not stop until we close a deal,” she told partneringNEWS.
“Working with smaller companies takes us beyond traditional investment banking because it gives us an opportunity to roll up our sleeves as an advisor to the company and work hands-on with the management team,” she said.
“Our clients and companies are terrific and the work is always stimulating,” she said.
In addition to discussions about product and company sales, Sepsis said she is seeking meetings at BioPharm America with companies looking to raise capital.
Also, she said, there are large-cap companies seeking to acquire smaller companies, “and we want to meet with them. There are also venture capital firms interested in putting money to work in good companies, so we look forward to those discussions also.”
The former head of healthcare investment banking at Susquehanna Financial Group and co-head of healthcare banking at C.E. Unterberg, Towbin, Sepsis said she found she preferred working with smaller companies, “which does not make sense at a large investment bank.” Andrea McCormick, a VP at ESC Advisors was trained as chemist and has been in healthcare investment banking for over eight years.
Sepsis founded ESC Advisors in 2009 as a boutique investment bank “with bulge bracket experience” offering advisory services and financing to biotech and specialty pharma companies.
“On the advisory side our work includes both buy-side and sell-side mandates of companies, as well as partnering of products, product acquisitions, divestitures and licensing,” she added. “We also do private placements and strategic advisory work/business development,” she explained.
“Some companies want to monetize non-core assets in order to have non-dilutive financing,” she said.
One of the few business deals she was able to discuss was the publicly announced acquisition by Swiss-based Actelion of a formulation of epoprostenol for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) from GeneraMedix.
“That was a great deal to be involved with,” she said. “The process we ran was exactly like selling a company. We contacted interested parties, got them under a CDA, put together the data room, put together the material, and ultimately closed the deal with the right buyer.”
In the past six months ESC Advisors has expanded on its international experience through assignments from clients in Germany and Australia.
Among other deals, right now ESC is working on a preclinical product that is generating a lot of interest in the orphan drug space, a sector ESC knows very well. Even though the product is in the preclinical phase of development, it has been used on a compassionate use basis; as newborns would typically die without the treatment. This company reminds us that ultimately, behind all of our efforts in closing a deal, the work is about the patients.
“Yes, it can be challenging to bring such a product to market, yet it is important to get certain drugs to market to save lives,” she said.
“For our clients, these are interesting times, to say the least,” she added.
“Companies who seek to raise financing are finding it takes longer than it did in the past, and that they need to be prepared to answer tough questions,” she said.
“Today’s investors are looking for reasons not to invest, it is that simple. But venture capitalists are a diverse group and their interests need to be considered on a case-by-case basis. And they are always looking for good companies, with good management teams,” she added.
“There are some VCs seeking a very low regulatory risk profile and they only want to hear about products that are far along in clinical trials,” she said, “Yet some are sincerely looking at new cutting-edge science.”
“Independent judgment and experience are incredibly important in today’s environment,” said Sepsis.
“The strength of ESC Advisors are the contacts and relationships we maintain in the life science sector, both on the strategic and financial side” she said. “On the financing side we bring to our clients a broad network of relationships across the venture capital community.”
“On the strategic side, it is not enough to know pharmaceutical companies and what they are seeking,” said Sepsis. “Knowing the individuals who make the decisions inside these very large organizations gives our clients an edge because we are able to bring solutions that are out-of-the box, connecting them with people interested in their product who may not be immediately obvious.”
“We provide clients with superior advice, but that is not always going to be the easy answer, and frankly, it is not always what companies want to hear,” she remarked.
“We help clients prepare for the questions that are going to come from investors, that they describe the situation realistically and do not oversell the company” she said.
“Most importantly, we make sure our clients are in front of the right investors. We are very straightforward, because we believe that is how business should be done,” she concluded.
Related Posts
No related posts.