April 19, 2024

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SillaJen aims to secure around 220 billion won (US$194.89 million) fresh funds through issuing convertible bonds, according to industry sources on March 7.

It has picked Kium Securities to organize the deal with investors.

According to sources, the official decision to secure new funds will be confirmed during a board meeting scheduled on March 12

If the company successfully receives the money, it will be the first big fund that SillaJen will secure after it went public in 2016.

Industry insiders have been saying that SillaJen will soon secure additional funds because it had been losing money over the last three years. Its operating loss which reached 46.8 billion won in 2016 increased to 47.1 billion won as of the third quarter last year. Moreover, it spends around 50 billion won for research and development every year on average.

Although SillaJen declined to state its specific plans about the usage of the funds, industry watchers say that it will mainly use the money for developing its drug candidate Pexa-Vec, an oncolytic virus vaccine designed to kill cancer cells, which is currently undergoing phase 3 clinical trials.

By Song Seung-hyun (ssh@heraldcorp.com)