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| gettyimagesbank |
By Lee Min-hyung
Korea's small- to mid-sized biotechnology firms are moving to go public on the local stock market despite weak investor sentiment on initial public offerings (IPO) here.
Starting with Bioinfra, a local biotech company, which was listed on the secondary Kosdaq on March 2, a group of bio companies here is scheduled to go public, hoping to attract timely investments even as market sentiment has yet to recover.
This contrasts with other highly-anticipated big companies ― most of which are delaying their IPO timelines on fears of attracting less-than-expected capital from investors amid months-long stock doldrums.
S.BIOMEDICS ― a cell therapy products developer ― also plans to carry out a two-day demand forecasting from institutional investors from March 8. The firm's post-IPO market capitalization is forecast to reach as high as 198 billion won ($152 million).
GI Innovation ― whose expertise lies in developing protein new drugs ― is also scheduled to conduct the demand forecasting between March 15 and 16.
The mid-tier bio venture firms are expected to lead the local IPO market for the time being, as most other attention-grabbing large-cap big companies ― such as Kurly and K bank ― are delaying their timeframe for listing here.
Bio firms were also not in a rush for the IPO until the latter half of 2022, but Bioinfra's successful listing paved the way for more bio firms to gain confidence in their listing plans. Earlier, the company succeeded in fixing its initial offering price at the upper limit of its desired value of 21,000 won per share after attracting attention from not just institutional, but retail investors.
Other bio firms such as Ensol Biosciences and Curiox BioSystems also submitted applications for preliminary examination for listing on the Korea Exchange last month.
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