이 기사는 2021년 05월 10일 08:05 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

South Korea’s drug maker HK inno.N plans to go public on the secondary Kosdaq market in the third quarter, with its valuation likely to be around 2 trillion won ($1.78 billion). The firm’s largest shareholder Kolmar Korea valued the company at around 1.24 trillion won at the end of last month.

HK inno.N submitted its preliminary application for initial public offering (IPO) on Tuesday, about one-and-a-half years after it hired Korea Investment & Securities, Samsung Securities and JP Morgan as its bookrunners at the end of 2019.

The review process normally takes 45 working days. It is likely to make its stock market debut in the third quarter considering its follow-up procedures.

The company will sell more than 10 million shares including 5.78 million new shares and 4.34 million shares held by existing shareholders.

Financial investors including H&Q Korea, Mirae Asset Private Equity, STIC Investments are expected to sell their shares in the planned IPO. Funds managed by the financial investors own a combined 47.3% stake in the drug maker.

The financial investors invested around 350 billion won when Kolmar Korea acquired HK inno.N from CJ CheilJedang in April 2018 under the condition of HK inno.N’s IPO by 2022.

The three financial investors completed preparations for their exits last month, converting all their redeemable convertible preference shares into common shares. Industry watchers expect the investors to maximize their returns by selling a portion of their stake first and then selling the rest in the market depending on the stock price movement.

HK inno.N, formerly CJ Healthcare, produces pharmaceuticals and health functional foods. The company generates an annual revenue of around 500 billion won, with an operating margin of 10~15%. It recorded revenue of 598.4 billion won, operating income of 87 billion won and net income of 27.9 billion won in 2020, its best financial performance ever.

Kolmar Korea invested 50 billion won in HK inno.N’s rights offering in the form of third party placement on April 22. The largest shareholder bought 934,579 common shares issued by HK inno.N at 53,500 per share. Based on the price, the valuation of the drug maker is around 1.24 trillion won.

Market insiders expect the company to set its valuation as much as 2 trillion won for its planned IPO, because it recently posted the best performance despite the Covid-19 pandemic and stock prices of its peer companies including Dong-A Socio Holdings, Kwangdong Pharmaceutical and Handok are on the rise.

Kolmar Korea and the financial investors injected total 1.3 trillion won to acquire HK inno.N three years ago. (Reporting by Cheol Kang)