A Donegal man hopes to raise one billion dollars when his latest venture launches on New York’s Nasdaq.
Poolbeg Pharma is planning to list on the stock exchange as chairman Cathal Friel (58), from Creeslough, eyes another $1bn exit for Raglan Capital investors.
He was a finalist in the International category as part of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2020.
He left school after his Junior Cert to work in the family business, Friel’s of Creeslough, before going back to education.
He completed a City and Guilds Cert in Basic Computer Programming in Letterkenny RTC (ATU Donegal) at night classes and got an MBA from the University of Ulster in 1990.
He spent the following five years lecturing part-time in International Marketing and Business Planning at the University of Ulster, while running his own new technology services business.
He would then spend a year back-packing his way around the globe before coming back to Dublin where he was part of the team that successfully established Merrion Stockbrokers in 2001. Six years later he founded Raglan Capital.
The Irish Independent is reporting Poolbeg is understood to be in discussions with advisors about an initial public offering (IPO) on the exchange, possibly by the end of the year, in a bid to ultimately attract a large trade buyer.
The potential move comes after the $1.48bn (€1.4bn) sale of Amryt Pharma, another Nasdaq listed Raglan project, to Italy’s Chiesi earlier this week in a deal that saw early investors treble their money.
“Ultimately, you need to be listed on Nasdaq to make this happen,” Mr Friel said.
“The plan now is to see if we can repeat the exercise with Poolbeg Pharma, but this time to see if we can hit the billion valuation in less than the eight years it took Amryt.”
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