Exhibit 5.1
Connect Biopharma Holdings Limited
3580 Carmel Mountain Road, Suite 200
San Diego, California 92130, USA
10 June 2025
Dear Sir or Madam
Connect Biopharma Holdings Limited (the Company)
We have acted as Cayman Islands legal counsel to the Company in connection with a registration statement on Form S-8 to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the Commission) on 10 June 2025 (the Registration Statement, which term does not include any other document or agreement whether or not specifically referred to therein or attached as an exhibit or schedule thereto) relating to the registration under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, (the Securities Act) of (i) an additional 7,000,000 ordinary shares, par value US$0.000174 per share, in the capital of the Company (the Ordinary Shares), issuable by the Company pursuant to the Companys 2021 Stock Incentive Plan and (ii) 4,500,000 Ordinary Shares issuable by the Company pursuant to the Companys 2024 Employment Inducement Incentive Award Plan (together with the Companys 2021 Stock Incentive Plan, the Plans, which term does not include any other document or agreement whether or not specifically referred to therein or attached as an exhibit or schedule thereto).
For the purposes of giving this opinion, we have examined copies of the Registration Statement and the Plans. We have also reviewed copies of the Fifth Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association of the Company as adopted by a special resolution passed on 12 March 2021 and effective immediately prior to the completion of the initial public offering of the Companys American Depositary Shares represented its Ordinary Shares (the Memorandum and Articles), the written resolutions of the members of the Company passed on 12 March 2021 (the Shareholder Resolutions), the minutes of the meeting of the board of directors of the Company held on 9 March 2021 and 10 June 2024 (the Board Minutes) and the written resolutions of the board of directors of the Company passed on 27 March 2025 (the Board Resolutions).
Based upon, and subject to, the assumptions and qualifications set out below, and having regard to such legal considerations as we deem relevant, we are of the opinion that:
1. | The Ordinary Shares to be issued by the Company and registered under the Registration Statement have been duly and validly authorised. |
2. | When issued and paid for in accordance with the terms of the Plans and in accordance with the Shareholder Resolutions, the Board Minutes and the Board Resolutions, and when appropriate entries are made in the register of members (shareholders) of the Company, the Ordinary Shares will be validly issued, fully paid and non-assessable. |
In this opinion letter, the phrase non-assessable means, with respect to the issuance of Ordinary Shares, that a shareholder shall not, in respect of the relevant Ordinary Shares, have any obligation to make further contributions to the Companys assets (except in exceptional circumstances, such as involving fraud, the establishment of an agency relationship or an illegal or improper purpose or other circumstances in which a court may be prepared to pierce or lift the corporate veil).
These opinions are subject to the qualification that under the Companies Act (As Revised) of the Cayman Islands (the Companies Act), the register of members of a Cayman Islands company is by statute regarded as prima facie evidence of any matters which the Companies Act directs or authorises to be inserted therein. A third party interest in the shares in question would not appear. An entry in the register of members may yield to a court order for rectification (for example, in the event of fraud or manifest error).
These opinions are given only as to, and based on, circumstances and matters of fact existing and known to us on the date of this opinion letter. These opinions only relate to the laws of the Cayman Islands which are in force on the date of this opinion letter. We express no opinion as to the meaning, validity or effect of any references to foreign (i.e. non-Cayman Islands) statutes, rules, regulations, codes, judicial authority or any other promulgations.
We have also relied upon the assumptions, which we have not independently verified, that (a) all signatures, initials and seals are genuine, (b) copies of documents, conformed copies or drafts of documents provided to us are true and complete copies of, or in the final forms of, the originals, (c) where a document has been provided to us in draft or undated form, it will be duly executed, dated and unconditionally delivered in the same form as the last version provided to us, (d) the Memorandum and Articles remain in full force and effect and are unamended, (e) the Shareholder Resolutions, the Board Resolutions and the resolutions set out in the Board Minutes were duly passed in the manner prescribed in the memorandum and articles of association of the Company in force at the relevant time and have not been amended, varied or revoked in any respect, (f) there is nothing under any law (other than the laws of the Cayman Islands) which would or might affect the opinions set out above, (g) there is nothing contained in the minute book or corporate records of the Company (which we have not inspected) which would or might affect the opinions set out above, and (h) upon the issue of any Ordinary Shares, the Company will receive consideration which shall be not less than the par value of such Ordinary Shares.
This opinion letter is to and for the benefit solely of the addressee and may not be relied upon by any other person for any purpose.
We consent to the use of this opinion as an exhibit to the Registration Statement and further consent to all references to us in the Registration Statement and any amendments thereto. In giving such consent, we do not consider that we are experts within the meaning of such term as used in the Securities Act, or the rules and regulations of the Commission issued thereunder, with respect to any part of the Registration Statement, including this opinion as an exhibit or otherwise.
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Yours faithfully
/s/ Maples and Calder (Hong Kong) LLP
Maples and Calder (Hong Kong) LLP
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