Local pharmaceutical and biotech companies are going public in August, following SK Biopharmaceuticals’ stock market debut in early July.
Many biotech companies with a schedule for initial public offering (IPO) have recorded high competition rates of subscription. Still, some analysts cautioned against excessive expectations for their performances.
According to the Korea Exchange (KRX)’s Kosdaq Market Division, NeoImmunTech and NGeneBio on Friday applied for a preliminary review for listing on the Kosdaq market. The two companies hope to complete the IPO this year.
NeoImmunTech, a U.S. subsidiary of Genexine, is a developer of T cell-focused immunotherapies. The company received A rating in technology evaluation by E Credible and Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology on July 1. It became eligible to apply for the preliminary review for the Kosdaq listing.
NGeneBio, a subsidiary of Gencurix, makes next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based diagnostics platforms. The company also won two A ratings in technology assessment, required for listing under the technology exception policy.
Usually, it takes about two months to get the result of the listing eligibility review from the KRX.
Korea Pharma and Celemics are planning an IPO in August.
Korea Pharma is to debut on Kosdaq on Aug. 10. The company’s subscription offers for retail investors recorded the competition rate of 2,035.74 to 1 on Thursday. Earlier, the company determined the issue price at 9,000 won ($7.57), well above the initially desired price range between 6,500-8,500 won, after estimating expected demands from institutional investors.
Celemics, an NGS analysis service provider, is also going public on Aug. 21. As the company has completed the two-day estimation of expected demands on Tuesday, it plans to offer IPO subscriptions from Aug. 10-11.
On July 10, Celemics corrected the registration statement to lower the desired offering price range from 17,800-22,000 won to 16,100-20,000 won. The company cited “pace adjustment” as the reason for lowering the desired price.
“We are aware of the growing attention on biotech firms’ IPOs, which will be advantageous for us,” an official at Celemics said. “However, we worry that people may think we’re trying to jump on the bandwagon.”
The official added that Celemics was following its schedule for IPO in August, and it would focus on raising its corporate and technological value rather than taking advantage of the hype in biotech stocks.