By Gina Lee
Investing.com – South Korea’s SK Bioscience Ltd. saw its shares soar in their KOSPI board debut on Thursday.
The shares opened at KRW130,000 ($115.078) and were trading at KRW169,000 at 12:16 AM ET (4:16 AM GMT), valuing the company at KRW 12.9 trillion and raising KRW 1.5 trillion. SK Bioscience had priced the shares at KRW65,000.
Investor bets on the COVID-19 vaccine developer’s prospects drove shares up as much as 30%, the best opening day on the bourse since global EV parts supplier Myoung Shin Industry’s December 2020 listing. The listing even raised more than the successful IPOs by game developer Kakao Games and affiliate SK Biopharmaceuticals in 2020, and according to Korea Exchange data, is the largest IPO since mobile game developer Netmarble’s KRW2.7 trillion listing in May 2017.
Some investors predict that the South Korean IPO market will remain busy in 2021. Strong investor demand is expected to drive more listings by companies in sectors that are profiting from increased health concerns and stay-at-home habits driven by COVID-19.
The company, in which SK Chemical holds a 68.4% stake, is producing the COVID-19 vaccines for AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN)/University of Oxford and Novavax Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX) in Korea. It received regulatory approval to begin clinical trials for its own candidate in November 2020.
“SK Bioscience gained an opportunity to become a global vaccine company by being chosen to develop and produce for the COVID-19 vaccine purchasing scheme known as COVAX,” Park's colleague Byung-Hwa Han told Reuters.
“It’s the only company chosen that conducts development and manufacturing simultaneously... after [vaccine] approval, revenue will begin to come in the second half,” Han added before shares began trading.