Symetis, a Swiss maker of replacement heart valves, hopes to grab market share with its products offering less invasive procedures without open-heart surgery, it said on Tuesday as it launched an 80 million Swiss franc ($83 million) stock sale. Symetis is selling up to 2.3 million new shares in an initial public offering (IPO) priced at between 35 and 46 francs, implying a market value for the company of between 200 million francs and 240 million.
Trading of the shares begins in Zurich on September 29.
Chief Executive Jacques Essinger, whose company's heart valve replacements are inserted via a catheter into patients suffering from severe aortic stenosis, or narrowing of a heart valve, is hoping investors back his bet on two trends.
Symetis is counting on surgeons adopting its system over those of rivals like Edwards Lifesciences and Medtronic, and on regulators' expanding the range of patients eligible for a procedure called transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI).
Patients considered high risk for valve replacement via open heart surgery, including some older people or those with previous surgery, are now mostly eligible for devices like Symetis's to combat aortic valve obstructions.
Essinger expects the patient group will grow as doctors find surgery with Symetis's system easier, with better clinical outcomes.
"TAVI is expected to become the standard treatment of severe aortic stenosis," Essinger said. "Who would prefer an open-chest surgery rather than one that's minimally invasive? Nobody."
Symetis aims to make an operating profit by the end of 2016.
To date, its devices have been used in 3,700 patients. About 3,000 got its first product, Acurate TA, inserted through the chest, while some 700 have got its latest, Acurate neo/TF, inserted via the leg's femoral artery.
The systems sell for roughly 25,000 euros ($28,270) each.
In Germany, hospital reimbursement rates run 35,000 euros for a procedure with one of Symetis's valves, he said.
Symetis's sales of 10.8 million francs in the first half of 2015 are due to grow 60 percent this year and next, it said.
Symetis makes nearly 90 percent of sales in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, but with the flotation proceeds aims to expand the revenue share from beyond to at least 50 percent come 2017.
After the IPO it will have 52 million francs in cash.
"This will be more than sufficient to bring us to a positive cash flow and to finance our expansion into Japan and the US," said Chief Financial Officer Khaled Bahi.