aibioAptevo says $15.9 million in new equity puts it back in line with Nasdaq rule
Tickers APVO
Aptevo says about $15.9 million of gross equity raised in the June quarter puts it back above Nasdaq's $2.5 million stockholders' equity minimum. The figure is the company's own belief, and it was still awaiting formal confirmation from Nasdaq.
Key facts
- Company
- Aptevo Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: APVO)
- News type
- Listings
- Primary source
- Aptevo Therapeutics Inc. 8-K (2025-06-30)
Aptevo Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: APVO) said in an 8-K dated June 30, 2025 that it believes it again meets Nasdaq's stockholders' equity requirement. The conclusion is the company's own. At the time of the filing, Nasdaq had not yet confirmed it.
What the June 30 filing says
Nasdaq's Listing Qualifications Staff had earlier written to Aptevo that, for the quarter ended March 31, 2025, it did not comply with Listing Rule 5550(b)(1). The rule requires a company to keep at least $2,500,000 in stockholders' equity for continued listing on The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC.
Aptevo says it raised gross proceeds of approximately $15.9 million of additional equity capital during the quarter ended June 30, 2025, and as a result believes it has stockholders' equity of at least $2.5 million. The 8-K lists four sources:
- A registered direct offering of common stock and a concurrent private placement of warrants, completed April 4, 2025, with gross proceeds of approximately $2.1 million.
- A registered direct offering of common stock, completed April 22, 2025, with gross proceeds of approximately $2.0 million.
- A registered direct offering of common stock, or pre-funded warrants in lieu of it, together with warrants, completed June 20, 2025, with gross proceeds of approximately $8.0 million.
- Sales of common stock under an At The Market Offering Agreement with Roth Capital Partners dated April 28, 2025, for aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $3.8 million.
Every figure is gross, so the cash that reached the company is lower after fees. The 8-K does not name a placement agent for the registered direct offerings, and it gives no price, share count or warrant terms for any of them. Roth Capital Partners appears only as the counterparty to the at-the-market agreement.
Belief, not a balance sheet
The company does not report an actual stockholders' equity figure for June 30, 2025. It says only that, as of the date of the filing, it believes its equity is at least $2.5 million. The compliance claim therefore rests on money raised during the quarter, not on a reported balance sheet. The 8-K also does not say how far below the $2,500,000 minimum equity had fallen at March 31, 2025.
The filing ends by saying that Aptevo "awaits formal confirmation from Nasdaq that it has evidenced compliance with the Rule" and will update the market when it receives a determination. Until that determination arrived, the matter was open. The signatory is Marvin L. White, president and chief executive officer.
The pattern behind the number matters for shareholders. Compliance in this quarter came from three registered direct offerings and an at-the-market program within one quarter, each of which adds shares. Two of the deals came with warrants, which can add more shares later.
The business behind the filing
Aptevo describes itself in its annual report on Form 10-K for 2024 as a clinical-stage, research and development biotechnology company developing immunotherapy candidates for cancer. It says it has two clinical candidates and three preclinical candidates.
Its lead clinical candidate is mipletamig, a CD3xCD123 T cell engager in the RAINIER trial. The company describes RAINIER as part one of a Phase 1b/2 program started in August 2024, for frontline acute myelogenous leukemia in combination with the standard of care, venetoclax plus azacitidine. The second clinical candidate, ALG.APV-527, targets 4-1BB and 5T4. The company says it is designed to reactivate antigen-primed T cells and is being evaluated in multiple solid tumor types.
The preclinical candidates are APVO603 and APVO711, built on the company's ADAPTIR platform, and APVO442, built on ADAPTIR-FLEX. The company says it wholly owns both platforms. It says ADAPTIR proteins may have structural and functional advantages over monoclonal antibodies, a statement of the company's own view. The annual report describes the Phase 1 dose escalation and dose expansion results as positive, and says RAINIER is a dose optimization Phase 1b/2 trial. No approved product is mentioned, and the 8-K gives no cash, revenue or loss figures.