UniQure Enters $175 Mln Loan Deal With Hercules Capital To Support AMT-130 Launch

(RTTNews) - uniQure N.V. (QURE), a gene therapy company, on Wednesday announced that it has entered into a $175 million non-dilutive senior secured term loan facility with a specialty finance company, Hercules Capital, Inc. (HTGC), to strengthen financial flexibility ahead of a potential commercial launch of AMT-130.

Shares of uniQure are increasing by around 3% in the pre-market trading.

The facility consists of three tranches, and all tranches mature in October 2030.

The first tranche is a $50 million tranche to refinance existing debt at closing, and a $100 million second tranche is available upon achieving a regulatory milestone for AMT-130 and a financial milestone. A third tranche of up to $25 million may be accessed with Hercules' approval.

The loans carry a floating interest rate equal to the greater of 9.45% and the prime rate plus 2.45%, currently 9.70%, compared with 11.95% on the refinanced debt.

AMT-130 is the company's investigational gene therapy for Huntington's disease.

In the pre-market trading, uniQure is 3.15% higher at $14.09 on the Nasdaq.

In the pre-market trading, Hercules Capital is 0.37% higher at $19.24 on the New York Stock Exchange.