이 기사는 2021년 03월 17일 08시06분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

SD Biosensor, a South Korean Covid-19 test kits manufacturer, is pushing to go public this year, which is expected to be the country’s second multi-trillion-won deal in 2021.

SD Biosensor plans to submit a registration statement to financial authorities and start a book building process next month, if it receives the green light from regulators, which is expected at the end of March or in early April.

The offering, if it happens, will be the second multi-trillion-won deal in 2021 following the listing of SK Bioscience.

Founded in 2010, SD Biosensor makes various types of real-time Covid-19 test kits that are exported globally. Its product portfolio includes rapid chromatographic immunoassay kits, reagents, and fluorescent immunoassay, which can measure Covid-19 antibodies from a small amount of blood.

The company showed an exponential growth since the Covid-19 pandemic began. It is believed to have recorded 1.5 trillion won ($1.3 billion) in revenue with an operating profit of 800 billion won and a net profit of 600 billion won in 2020.

The results would represent a big jump from revenue of 73.7 billion won and an operating profit of 900 million in 2019. The company’s audited financial statement for 2020 will be released this month.

This puts the company on par with Seegene, a diagnostic reagent maker, which recorded revenue of 1.13 trillion won and an operating profit of 676 billion won last year.

Industry watchers expect SD Biosensor’s valuation to reach 10 trillion won, higher than previous estimates ranging from 5 trillion won to 6 trillion won.

There have been concerns about Covid-19 test kits makers’ performance this year as Covid-19 vaccines roll out. Seegene’s price-to-earning ratio (PER) was around 50 times at the end of March 2020 when the demand for test kits peaked. Its PER now dropped to 6.8 times based on its market capitalization of 3.41 trillion won on March 15 and its net profit of 503 billion won last year.

Seegene’s revenue deteriorates this year, decreasing from 127 billion won in January to 96.6 billion won in February.

This contrasts with SD Biosensor, which has shown much better performance during the first two months of 2021 compared to a year ago. Its financial performance in the first quarter of 2021 is expected to improve from the previous quarter.

SD Biosensor’s Covid-19 Antigen Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) has been listed as eligible for the World Health Organization procurement and included in its Emergency Use Listing in September 2020.

This paved the way for the company to sell its RDT kits to Roche, the world’s largest biotech company, under an original equipment manufacturer contract.

SD Biosensor is highly likely to apply a net profit of 1 trillion won to value itself, which is between last year’s net profit of around 600 billion won and this year’s estimated net profit of 1.2 trillion won.

Its peer group will likely include Seegene with a PER of 6.8 times and global rival Quidel with a PER of 7.23 times. The industry’s average PER stands at 6 to 7 times.

SD Biosensor could apply a higher PER of around 10 times thanks to its strong pipeline. Its fair value is likely to amount to 10 trillion won by multiplying its net profit of 1 trillion won by PER of 10 times. Its valuation would be between 7 trillion won and 9 trillion won after applying a discount rate. SD Biosensor is expected to raise between 1.4 trillion won to 1.8 trillion won through its listing if it sells 20% of its total shares.

In comparision, SK Bioscience is set to raise nearly 1.5 trillion won later this week at a valuation of 4.3 trillion won based on its listing price. (Reporting by Kyung-joo Lee)