Peer Schatz is not only an experienced CEO, he is also one of the sponsors of the European Healthcare Acquisition & Growth Company (Ticker EHCS), a European SPAC launched on the Amsterdam Exchange in November 2021.
The financing and fundraising environment for both private and public life science companies remains very volatile. CEOs of private companies cannot rely on capital markets being open and taking their companies public. Equally, they are competing for capital from investors that are also looking at more than 200 publicly listed life science companies, which are trading at a discount to the value of the cash on their balance sheet.
Funding and financing in highly volatile markets requires CEOs to maximise their financing options. Creating more than one financing option provides for critical competitive tension that not only offers the possibility of better terms & conditions but may be required to initiate any financing transaction at all.
SPACs (Special Purpose Acquisition Companies) have historically been viewed with some suspicion. However, SPAC structures have been evolving and SPACs should form part of the financing menu that every life science entrepreneur must explore.
Peer Schatz was the Chief Executive Officer of QIAGEN N.V. QIAGEN’s sample-to-insight solutions provide valuable insights on molecular information to customers in molecular diagnostics, applied testing, academia and the pharmaceutical industry. He joined QIAGEN in 1993, when the company had under 30 employees and revenues of approximately $2 million. Under his leadership, QIAGEN grew to employ more than 5,200 people in over 35 locations around the world and to record annual revenues of over US$ 1.6 billion – with strong leadership positions in molecular diagnostics/precision medicine, research tools and advanced bioinformatics.
Peer led more than 40 acquisitions for QIAGEN as well as QIAGEN’s listings on NASDAQ (in 1996, making QIAGEN the first German company to do so) and its listings on the NYSE (2018) and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (1997). QIAGEN had a market capitalization of around $10 billion in October 2019.
Peer left QIAGEN in 2019 to found PS Capital GmbH, a unit of his family office. He is co-founder and chairman of Resolve Biosciences GmbH, chairman of Centogene NV (Nasdaq: CNTG), supervisory board member of Siemens Healthineers AG (Frankfurt: SHL).