Anna Jiwon Park has been covering the politics at The Korea Times since the summer of 2024, when she joined the press pool for the Office of the President in Korea. Prior to that, she spent about five years reporting extensively on financial markets, regulatory authorities and the financial industry. She joined The Korea Times in 2019 after spending eight years as a broadcast journalist at Arirang TV, Korea’s leading global broadcaster, covering politics, defense and culture.
SK Bioscience shares soar to daily limit-up on 1st day of trading
SK Bioscience CEO Ahn Jae-yong, sixth from left, and Korea Exchange (KRX) CEO Sohn Byung-doo, fifth from left, celebrate the KOSPI debut of the vaccine-focused CDMO arm of SK, along with key leaders of the brokerage industry at the lobby of the bourse in Yeouido, Thursday. / Courtesy of KRX
By Anna J. Park
Stock price set to rise further due to massive locked-up shares
By Anna J. Park
SK Bioscience shares made a successful debut on the benchmark KOSPI, Thursday, doubling in value from the initial offering price of 65,000 won ($57.82) to 130,000 won right after trading began. Less than a minute after the opening bell, the stock price of the vaccine contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) company surged to its daily 30 percent limit-up.
Thanks to the successful IPO, SK Bioscience's corporate value jumped to 12.9 trillion won, rising to 29th place in terms of market cap among KOSPI-listed firms. The company is hot on the heels of Samsung SDS, Samsung Electro-Mechanics and Amore Pacific, as of Thursday, whose market caps are estimated to exceed 14 trillion won.
“With the listing, a new chapter has begun for SK Bioscience based on the management principles of transparency and trust,” CEO Ahn Jae-yong said during a listing ceremony at the Korea Exchange (KRX) in Seoul's Yeouido financial district.
After being spun off from its parent company, SK Chemical, in 2018, the bio-pharmacology CDMO has focused on manufacturing various types of vaccines, including AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine. The firm is cooperating with global pharmaceutical companies, including Novavax, MSD, CSL and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), and also manages cold-chain distribution and storage for coronavirus vaccines.
SK Bioscience CEO Ahn Jae-yong, left foreground, and Korea Exchange (KRX) CEO Sohn Byung-doo, right, celebrate the company's market debut, along with key leaders of the brokerage industry at the lobby of the KRX on Yeouido, Thursday. / Courtesy of KRX
Given that the firm is already grossing solid net profits, market analysts said SK Bioscience will boast stronger fundamentals than SK Biopharmaceuticals, which saw its stock price surge more than 340 percent over several after its IPO last summer.
Despite some skepticism that the CDMO firm lacks key growth drivers in the coming years excluding COVID-19 vaccines, analysts are betting on the stock's further upside, especially because only a limited amount of shares are available for trading at present.
Only about 8.89 million shares, or 11.63 percent of the company's offered stock, are currently able to be traded, as more than 85 percent of institutional investors' shares are locked up from 15 days to six months. Shares owned by SK Chemical ― the major shareholder of SK Bioscience ― and company employees are also locked up for a year.
In sync with the start of the country's vaccination program earlier this month, SK Bioscience set a new record in its IPO stock allotment competition. More than 63 trillion won was deposited into the IPO escrow account, far exceeding the previous record of 58 trillion won set by Kakao Games last September.