April 26, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] The planned listing of Celltrion Healthcare, distributor and marketing unit of Celltrion’s biosimilar products, could hinder the demands for its affiliate Celltrion’s shares in the near term, a local securities firm said on Feb. 20.

“Some investors might flee the stock once Celltrion Healthcare goes public, as their combined market cap could be seen as burdensome,” said Brian Lee, an analyst at Samsung Securities said. 

Samsung Securities trimmed its 12-month target price of Celltrion by 10 percent to 135,000 won (US$118).

In December, Celltrion Healthcare submitted an application for its initial public offering with the KOSDAQ with analysts estimates putting its market cap at around 5 trillion won to 6 trillion won.

The company will go through preliminary screening next month for a possible listing in May. It hasn’t released an IPO price band or size of secondary share sales and new issuance.

Lee said the listing could alleviate concerns over group accounting practices as the move may “improve transparency for prices Celltrion Healthcare pays for Celltrion products and how the two firms split profits.”

Celltrion Healthcare is 44.3 percent owned by Celltrion Chairman Seo Jung-jin, 22.3 percent by a JP Morgan PEF and 11 percent by Temasek.
By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)