Bil­lion-dol­lar biosim mak­er mulls $500M Hong Kong IPO

A Chi­nese biosim­i­lar mak­er val­ued at $1.5 bil­lion might be the first to list its stock on Hong Kong’s ex­change un­der new rules al­low­ing star­tups and biotechs to go pub­lic.

The com­pa­ny, called Shang­hai Hen­lius Biotech, could do an IPO rais­ing $500 mil­lion as ear­ly as the sec­ond half of this year, ac­cord­ing to un­named sources in­ter­viewed by Bloomberg.

A list­ing like this could be a first for Hong Kong’s stock ex­change. Un­til re­cent­ly, Hong Kong did not al­low pre-rev­enue and pre-prof­it com­pa­nies to list, as they were a per­ceived risk to in­vestors. But this cut out the bulk of biotechs op­er­at­ing in the red while de­vel­op­ing drugs. The strict rules led Chi­nese biotech com­pa­nies like BeiGene to raise cap­i­tal in the US. On the Nas­daq, BeiGene’s stock has grown near­ly 310% over the past two years, bring­ing its mar­ket cap up to $6.3 bil­lion. Not bad for a com­pa­ny with bare­ly any rev­enue, and none from prod­uct sales as of their lat­est 10-K.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER