XOMA Royalty Strikes $36 Million Cash Deal for Mural Oncology

XOMA Royalty Corp. agreed to buy Mural Oncology plc for between $2.035 and $2.24 in cash per share, valuing the Dublin-registered biotech at roughly $36.2 million. The offer represents a 13 percent premium to Mural’s $1.80 closing price on 19 Aug. and a 97.6 percent premium to the stock’s undisturbed level in April, when the company began a strategic review. The deal will be executed through XRA 5 Corp., a newly formed, wholly owned XOMA subsidiary, via an Irish High Court–sanctioned scheme of arrangement. Mural shareholders will receive a base price of $2.035 per share and may get up to an additional $0.205 depending on the company’s net cash at closing. Trading in Mural shares was halted ahead of the announcement. Mural, which spun out of Alkermes in 2023, had been seeking options after discontinuing development of its lead cytokine therapy nemvaleukin following multiple trial failures. XOMA, a biotechnology royalty aggregator, intends to wind down most of Mural’s operations once the transaction closes. The companies expect to complete the acquisition by year-end 2025, pending shareholder votes and court approval.