Bolt shares rise 63% after Prana deal and $120m placement

Bolt Biotherapeutics shares rose 63.48% to $6.85 on Oct. 23 after the company announced its Prana Therapies acquisition and a $120 million private placement, Investor Ideas reported in a trading alert.

The move put Bolt on Nasdaq’s top-gainer list and followed an intraday high of $7.78, a 52-week high, on volume of more than 9.7 million shares as of the report.

The transaction shifts the listed company toward Prana’s pipeline of half-life-extended multispecific antibodies, medicines designed to hit more than one biological target and remain active longer in the body. Prana’s lead asset, PRA-216, is in Phase 2, a mid-stage clinical trial, for asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and atopic dermatitis, with another Phase 2 study planned in eosinophilic esophagitis.

“We built the INSPIRE platform to realize the potential of multispecific antibodies as medicines, combining complementary biology with the properties needed to deliver both greater efficacy and a better treatment experience for patients,” said Sheila Gujrathi, Prana co-founder and former chief executive officer, who was named Bolt’s chief strategy officer.

The company said the financing includes $120 million in upfront gross proceeds through the sale of Series D non-voting convertible preferred stock, a private placement, meaning securities sold to selected investors rather than through a public offering. Bolt said accompanying warrants could provide as much as another $60 million.

Investors in the placement include Deep Track Capital, ADAR1 Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, LYFE Capital, Coastlands Capital, Eventide Asset Management, Casdin Capital, Curie.Bio, SilverArc Capital, Soleus Capital and Deviation Capital, according to the company announcement cited by Investor Ideas.

The acquisition was structured as a stock-for-stock reverse merger, a transaction in which one company combines with a public listing through an exchange of shares. Bolt said all outstanding Prana equity interests were exchanged for Bolt common stock and Series D non-voting convertible preferred stock.

That ownership split is central for investors because the deal gives Prana holders majority economic exposure in the public company. Bolt said Prana equity holders would own about 51.7% of the combined company on a fully diluted basis, private-placement investors would own about 41.4%, and pre-transaction Bolt equity holders would own about 6.9%, assuming conversion of the preferred stock into common shares.

On an as-converted basis, Bolt said the combined share count would be about 34.2 million common shares, including shares underlying the preferred stock. Following receipt of the $120 million upfront proceeds, the company said it expects projected cash runway into 2028 and through multiple anticipated clinical and preclinical milestones.

Willie Quinn, Bolt’s chief executive officer, said the acquisition gives Bolt stockholders exposure to “a differentiated, clinical-stage pipeline addressing large markets, beginning in inflammatory disease.” The company said PRA-216 Phase 2 development has started in asthma, COPD and atopic dermatitis.

The development case remains early. The preferred shares will automatically convert into common stock only after Bolt stockholder approval under Nasdaq listing rules, subject to ownership limits set by holders. Bolt said the acquisition and private-placement closings did not require Bolt stockholder approval, though a later vote is required for the conversion.

Milestones ahead

The private placement is expected to close on Oct. 26. Patient data from four PRA-216 trials are expected from the second quarter of 2027 through the fourth quarter of 2027, and first-in-human studies for Prana’s second program are expected to begin in the second half of 2027.