April 19, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Celltrion Healthcare, the distribution arm of South Korean biopharmaceutical company Celltrion, confirmed on Dec.2 that it is aiming for stock market listing as early as April 2017. 

“Celltrion Healthcare will submit a preliminary application for an initial public offering this month to pursue listing on the KOSDAQ market between April and June next year,” Celltrion founder and chairman Suh Jeong-jin said during a recent shareholders’ meeting. 

Celltrion chairman Suh Jeong-jin

Mirae Asset Daewoo was named the lead manager of the IPO.

Celltrion Healthcare conducts worldwide marketing, sales and distribution of biosimilar products developed by its affiliate Celltrion, which is listed on the over-the-counter KOSDAQ market.

Celltrion Healthcare expects its market cap to reach around 6 trillion won (US$5.11 billion) with the planned IPO, according to industry watchers.

The confirmations for a market debut plan comes following Celltrion Healthcare’s entry into the US market with its November launch of Remsima, a Remicade biosimilar. 

Remsima will compete with Johnson & Johnson’s one of top selling drug Remicade, which notched $4.5 billion in US sales last year, with a 15 percent discount to wholesale price of the originator.

In 2015, Celltrion Healthcare’s operating profit surged 200 percent to 111.9 billion won from a year earlier and its sales grew 114 percent to 402.3 billion won.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)