DiaCarta to Become a Publicly Listed Company Through Merger with HH&L Acquisition Co.

HH&L Acquisition Co., a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) targeting the healthcare sector in Asia, and DiaCarta, Ltd., a precision molecular diagnostics company and developer of novel oncology and infectious disease tests, announced on October 14 that they have entered into a definitive business combination agreement. The transaction implies a pre-money equity value of $460 million for DiaCarta on a fully diluted basis.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021 and will position DiaCarta to capitalize on significant future growth within existing and new markets. Upon closing of the transaction, the combined company will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The transaction is expected to provide DiaCarta with access to the approximately $414 million cash from HH&L’s IPO proceeds held in trust.

The combined company will continue to be based in Pleasanton, California, and led by Aiguo Zhang, Founder and CEO of DiaCarta, and other key members of DiaCarta’s management team.

Established in 2011 and headquartered in Pleasanton, California, DiaCarta transforms patient care by providing effective precision diagnostics using liquid biopsy. With more than 80 global patents, DiaCarta offers a range of products and services, from single-gene cancer mutation detection qPCR assays, colorectal cancer mutation detection panels, radiation therapy toxicity monitoring cfDNA test to its targeted NGS panels.

According to the LevinPro HC database, this marks the 104^th transaction in the Laboratories, MRI and Dialysis sector this year, and the 58^th deal in the diagnostics subsector. Additionally, this also marks the 29^th SPAC deal of 2022 and the fourth SPAC deal in the diagnostics subsector.