PUBLICATION IN ACCORDANCE WITH ARTICLE 14 OF THE BELGIAN LAW OF 2 MAY 2007 REGARDING THE PUBLICATION OF MAJOR SHAREHOLDINGS (THE "TRANSPARENCY LAW")

REGULATED INFORMATION

GHENT, Belgium, 12 April 2018 - Ablynx [Euronext Brussels and Nasdaq: ABLX] today announced, in accordance with Article 14 of the Belgian Law of 2 May 2007 regarding the publication of major shareholdings in issuers whose securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market (the "Transparency Law"), that it received a notification of shareholdings from UBS Group AG on 10 April 2018.

UBS Group AG (taking into account the holdings of its subsidiary undertakings) has notified Ablynx that it has upward crossed the 5% threshold of total voting rights of Ablynx since 5 April 2018 and now holds 5,423,003 voting securities of Ablynx, representing 7.21% of the current 75,253,667 outstanding voting rights of Ablynx (versus lower than 3% notified previously on 4 April 2018).

The latest notification contains the following information:

• Reason for the notification:
  • acquisition or disposal of voting securities or voting rights
  • acquisition or disposal of financial instruments that are treated as voting securities
• Notification by: a parent undertaking or a controlling person
• Persons subject to the notification requirement: USB Group AG
• Transaction date: 5 April 2018
• Threshold that is crossed: 5%
• Denominator: 75,253,667
• Chain of controlled undertakings through which the holding is effectively being held: Please see the full chain of control in the Transparency Notification.
• Additional information: The disclosure obligation arose due to the total indirect holdings in voting rights of UBS Group AG, held directly by controlled undertakings going above 5% on 5 April 2018. This was caused by an increase in the Trading Book holdings of the aforementioned entities going above 5% and therefore no longer being exempt from reporting.

More information is available in the transparency notification. A full version of the transparency notifications is available on Ablynx website, under the section Investors.

The articles of the association of Ablynx NV provide for shareholders notification threshold of 3%, 5% or a multiple of 5% of the total number of existing voting rights.

About Ablynx

Ablynx is a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development of Nanobodies, proprietary therapeutic proteins based on single-domain antibody fragments, which combine the advantages of conventional antibody drugs with some of the features of small-molecule drugs. Ablynx is dedicated to creating new medicines which will make a real difference to society. Today, the Company has more than 45 proprietary and partnered programmes in development in various therapeutic areas including inflammation, haematology, immuno-oncology, oncology and respiratory disease. The Company has collaborations with multiple pharmaceutical companies including AbbVie; Boehringer Ingelheim; Eddingpharm; Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, New Jersey, USA; Merck KGaA; Novo Nordisk; Sanofi and Taisho Pharmaceuticals. The Company is headquartered in Ghent, Belgium. More information can be found on www.ablynx.com.

On 29 January 2018, Sanofi made an offer to acquire all of Ablynx's outstanding ordinary shares (including shares represented by American Depository Shares (ADSs), warrants and convertible bonds) at a price of €45 per share, which represents an aggregate equity value of approximately €3.9 billion. The proposed transaction was unanimously approved by both the Sanofi and Ablynx Board of Directors. The initial tender offer commenced on 4 April 2018 and will expire on 4 May 2018, subject to extension. Sanofi has published an offer document in which it set out the full details of its tender offer, and the Board of Directors of Ablynx published a response memorandum ('memorie van antwoord'), in which it set out its position on the tender offer.

For more information, please contact
Ablynx:
Dr Edwin Moses
CEO
t:   +32 (0)9 262 00 07
m: +32 (0)473 39 50 68
e:  [email protected]

Lies Vanneste
Director Investor Relations
t:   +32 (0)9 262 01 37
m: +32 (0)498 05 35 79
e:  [email protected]

Follow us on Twitter @AblynxABLX

Ablynx media relations:
Consilium Strategic Communications
Mary-Jane Elliott, Philippa Gardner, Sukaina Virji
t:  +44 (0)20 3709 5700
e:  [email protected]

Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher
Dan Katcher or Joseph Sala
t:  +1 212-355-4449

Attachment

• pdf version of the press release.pdf