SK Group said it has selected Brain Asset Management, a Korean private equity fund, as the preferred bidder for the pre-initial public offering (IPO) financing of its contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) subsidiary SK pharmteco.

SK held the preliminary bidding round in May through its pre-IPO organizer Credit Suisse (CS), which was participated by IMM Private Equity (PE), Stic Investment, Stonebridge Capital, Corstone Asia, and Brain Asset Management.

With Brain Asset Management being selected as the preferred bidder, the PEF plans to invest around $500 million (approximately 630 billion won) in SK pharmteco.

Brain Asset Management reportedly plans to use a portion of its new blind fund worth 300 billion won in the pre-IPO and will fill the rest by creating a separate project fund.

Through this funding, SK pharmteco plans to accelerate its global business centered on the U.S. and Europe and strengthen its competitiveness in the field of cell and gene therapy (CGT), which is being promoted as the company’s new growth engine.

The company also plans to secure technologies and expand production capacity in the fast-growing field of innovative therapeutics such as antibody conjugates (ADCs).

To expand its CDMO business, SK had acquired the Irish plant of Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), now known as SK biotech Ireland, in 2017 and the U.S. CDMO company AMPAC in 2018.

In 2019, SK established SK pharmteco to create synergies by integrating production sites in the U.S. (AMPAC), Europe (SK biotech Ireland), and Korea (SK biotech).

Since then, SK pharmteco has also entered the CGT field through the acquisition of French CGT CDMO Yposkesi in 2021 and investment in CBM, a U.S. CGT CDMO, in 2022.

Currently, SK Pharma has seven manufacturing facilities and five R&D centers in the U.S., Europe, and Korea.

SK  will finalize the execution of SK pharmteco’s pre-IPO financing as soon as it completes the negotiations with Brain Asset Management.