Capital Raising
SK Co., Ltd. announced on July 18 that it had selected Brain Asset Management as the preferred negotiating partner for capital raising (pre-IPO) of its contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) subsidiary SK pharmteco. The scale of the investment attraction is around 500 million dollars (approximately 630 billion won).
SK Co., holding 100% of SK pharmteco’s shares, chose Brain Asset Management as the preferred negotiation partner after a fair review, as it presented the most optimal conditions for SK pharmteco’s mid-to-long term development in aspects such as investment scale and conditions, strategic direction as a business partner, etc. Negotiations will continue in the future.
In order to strengthen SK pharmteco’s global business, SK Co. began potential investor meetings in March and carried out competitive bidding over about four months, including field studies of US businesses.
SK pharmteco plans to reinforce its competitiveness in the field of cell and gene therapy by accelerating global business centered in the U.S. and Europe, and securing technology and expanding production capacity in rapidly growing innovative therapeutic areas such as antibody-drug conjugates using the funds raised this time.
For the expansion of the CDMO business, SK Co. acquired Bristol Myers Squibb’s factory in Ireland (now SK biotech Ireland) in 2017 and AMPAC, a U.S. CDMO, in 2018, establishing a global production system. In 2019, SK pharmteco was established as a global integrated CDMO corporation by integrating production subsidiaries in the United States (AMPAC), Europe (SK biotech Ireland), and Korea (SK biotech).
Since then, SK pharmteco has entered the field of cell and gene therapy by acquiring the French cell and gene therapy CDMO Yposkesi in 2021 and investing in the U.S.-based cell and gene therapy CDMO CBM in 2022. Currently, SK pharmteco owns seven production facilities and five R&D centers in the U.S., Europe, and Korea.
An SK Co. spokesperson explained that once the negotiations are completed, the company plans to finalize the execution of SK pharmteco’s growth funds through the capital raising of Brain Asset Management.