Biosimilar Affiliate

 

Samsung is preparing to list its bio affiliate Samsung BioEpis on the U.S. NASDAQ as early as the first half of next year.

According to industry sources on June 29, Samsung BioEpis is known to have prepared the listing internally to secure money more than 1 trillion won necessary for developing biosimilar products.

If the listing is successful, the bio affiliate will be the first listed one in the stock market of the US among the nation's largest business group affiliates. 

"We are making reviews and preparations for an initial public offering on the NASDAQ particularly focusing on the transparency,” said an official at Samsung BioEpis, adding that the NASDAQ market is friendly to bio industry, which would enable an easier financing for the project.

Samsung BioEpis needs to secure about 1.5 trillion won for developing biosimilar products. Its market capitalization would reach 8 trillion won on the U.S. stock market when it comes to succeed in the listing, according to industry sources.

As one of the leading biosimilar firms in Korea, Samsung BioEpis was established in 2012 as a joint venture with global bio pharmacist Biogen Idec.

Samsung BioLogics, anther bio affiliate of Samsung Group holds a 90.3 percent stake of Samsung BioEpis. Established in 2011, the company was also a joint venture with Quintiles to produce bio pharmacies based on the contract manufacturing organization (CMO).

In the meantime, Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T hold 51.4 percent of Samsung BioLogics while Samsung Electronics has a 45.6 percent share.

Such a stock structure is raising an assumption that the IPO discussion of Samsung BioEpis is intended to accelerate the merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries.

Once the merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries is completed, the merged company will be the largest shareholder of Samsung BioLogics with a 51 percent stake, which would contribute to the corporate value of Samsung C&T once the bio affiliate is listed on the NASDAQ.

Meanwhile, Samsung BioEpis has been carrying out six projects to develop biosimilar products, which need more than 200 billion won.

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