The biotech industry is increasingly taking shareholder-friendly policies, with Alteogen, Seegene, and Hugel newly announcing to offer bonus shares and stock buybacks.

Earlier last month, Macrogen decided to provide cash dividends for the first time in the company’s history. Dongkoo Bio & Pharma and HLB said they would issue free new shares, too.

The latest moves are an apparent effort to keep new shareholders happy amid the bullish investor sentiment in the biotech industry, boosted by a significant increase in biotech share prices last year.

On Wednesday, Alteogen said it decided to offer 0.5 new shares per one common stock. The announcement came eight months after it decided to offer one free share per one common stock in July last year. The company said issuing bonus shares aimed to return shareholder value to existing shareholders.

Alteogen said it would issue a total of 14,384,455 shares – 14,041,450 common stocks and 343,005 convertible preferred stock (CPS). After the capital increase, the number of Alteogen’s common stocks and CPS will be 42,124,350 and 1,029,015, respectively. The company set the reference date for new stock allocation on March 25 and the expected listing date on April 12.

Alteogen expects that the bonus issues will boost liquidity and prompt smooth trading in the stock market.

“The capital increase through bonus shares is part of our policy to increase shareholder value and return it to shareholders. It’s a compensation for shareholders,” Alteogen CEO Park Soon-jae said.

He said his company’s share prices were falling because of insufficient liquidity and distorted information, despite Alteogen’s licensing-out deals and its pipelines' positive clinical results.

However, the company will set its eyes on the future and complete its ongoing projects to maximize shareholder value, Park added.

On Tuesday, Seegene’s board of directors determined the 21st general shareholders’ meeting agenda, where shareholders are expected to introduce quarterly dividends.

Seegene is pushing to introduce the quarterly dividend system. If introduced, Seegene shareholders will receive dividends more than twice a year, instead of once a year, the company said.

“If we can close the list of shareholders more than twice annually, instead of once at the end of the year, we will provide more active and customized investor relations activities for shareholders,” said Kim Bum-joon, vice president of business management at Seegene. He added such a system would also promote an influx of long-term investors who prefer a stable fund flow.

Apart from the general shareholders' agenda, Seegene decided to repurchase its shares worth 30 billion won ($26.3 million) to recover stock price losses and underrated corporate value.

The stock buyback aims to benefit shareholders practically, Seegene said. The company also plans to strategically use repurchased stocks and 240,000 shares it currently holds in the future.

Hugel, which became the first Korean firm to enter the Chinese botulinum toxin market last year, also decided on 30 billion won stock buyback to raise shareholder and corporate value and stabilize stock prices. The buyback program is valid until Sept. 9, and Samsung Securities will be the manager.

Hugel’s stock buyback is its fourth this time. The company ran the buyback program in three rounds, purchasing 87.4 billion won worth 240,000 own shares from 2018 to 2019. Among them, the company sold 100,000 shares. The company also issued two bonus shares per one common stock.

“Although Hugel has an excellent global competitiveness in the BTX industry, it has been excessively undervalued due to the stock price declines caused by external factors,” an official at Hugel said. “The company decided to buy back shares to improve undervaluation through stock price recovery and to show our confidence in the company's continued growth.”