Celltrion To Cancel 3.99 Percent Of Its Shares To Add Value For Shareholders
This article was originally published in PharmAsia News
Executive Summary
SEOUL - South Korean biotech Celltrion plans to cancel 3.99 percent or 4.812 million shares to add more value to its shares following a capital expansion in April by Singapore's Ion Investments B.V., a wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings. The move was approved by Celltrion's board June 21
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SEOUL - South Korean biotech Celltrion plans to cancel 3.99 percent or 4.812 million shares to add more value to its shares following a capital expansion in April by Singapore's Ion Investments B.V., a wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings. The move was approved by Celltrion's board June 21. "The cancellation will reduce the number of Celltrion shares on the [Korea's second-tier Kosdaq IT and biotech] stock market, thus it will add more value to the shares owned by our shareholders," Celltrion spokesman Kim Yong-Joong told PharmAsia News. "The cancellation of the equity came on the belief that we are already quite strongly armed with enough capital for our biosimilar project." As part of its bid to globally launch biosimilars as early as 2011, Celltrion has been seeking foreign investors to help speed up development of biosimilars of blockbuster therapeutic antibodies. As part of that effort, the company sold a 10-percent stake in the company to Ion Investments B.V. (Also see "Korea's Celltrion Sells 10 Percent Of Its Shares To Singapore's Temasek To Fund Biosimilar Development" - Scrip, 27 Apr, 2010.). "It's obviously good news to Celltrion shareholders who will see increased value to their Celltrion stocks," Chung Bo-Ra, a healthcare analyst at Daishin Securities, told PharmAsia News. "There were concerns that Temasek's participation in Celltrion's capital expansion might trigger an increase in the number of Celltrion shares on the stock market," Chung said. "Since then, however, Celltrion stocks have been maintaining a sold upward trend." Following the entry of semiconductor giant Samsung Electronics into the biosimilar space, competition has been fierce. Existing players such as Celltrion and LG Life Sciences have been increasingly wary as Samsung began hiring away their biosimilar talent despite non-compete contracts. A recent Seoul court decision, however, has put the brakes on that practice (Also see "Korean Court Upholds Employee Non-competition Clause In LG Contract; Puts Brakes On Samsung's Manhunt For Biosimilar Specialists" - Scrip, 8 Jun, 2010.). After years of exploring new business areas beyond its traditional pipeline of semiconductors and electronics products, Samsung Group announced in May that it would enter the healthcare sector, targeting biosimilars and medical devices with an initial investment of roughly $4.1 billion (Also see "Samsung Group Set To Enter Biosimilars Market With $1.9 Billion Investment" - Scrip, 17 May, 2010.). - Peter Chang ([email protected]) |