Seoul: Samsung Bioepis Co Ltd, a biosimilar drug development subsidiary of South Korea’s Samsung Group, on Monday said it planned to choose advisers for a US listing by mid-August, with a view to debuting on the Nasdaq market by the end of the second quarter next year.
Samsung Group has identified biopharmaceuticals as an industry promising for future growth. But analysts said Bioepis is also set to play a key role in the group’s transfer of leadership from hospitalised patriarch Lee Kun-hee to son and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd vice-chairman Jay Y. Lee.
Bioepis is one of the group’s few yet-to-be established firms, so its fate would offer the clearest reflection of the performance of the group’s new management, analysts said.
“Jay Y. Lee must prove his mettle as the leader of the group by success in the bio business,” said analyst Kim Young-woo at HMC Investment Securities.
Bioepis is set to fall under direct control of the younger Lee following the merger between the group’s de facto holding company Cheil Industries Inc and group construction unit Samsung C&T Corp.
Listing Bioepis by the end of next year’s April-June quarter would coincide with its expected European regulatory approval of biosimilar versions of drugs Enbrel and Remicade. The approvals would likely raise the company’s perceived value, analysts said.
A Bioepis spokesman said the company has not decided the exact timing or size of the listing. He said if the company is valued at 8 trillion won to 10 trillion won ($6.87 billion to $8.59 billion; Dh25.05 billion to Dh31.31 billion), and lists 10 per cent to 20 per cent of shares, an initial public offering could raise up to 2 trillion won.
Bioepis plans to use the funds raised to develop 7 biosimilar versions of existing drugs and “biobetters,” or improved versions of existing biopharmaceutical drugs.
