South Korean biopharmaceutical firm SK Bioscience The company is the top beneficiary among initial public offerings Which raised more than $1 billion this year, leading that country’s ranking dominated by listings.
Shares of SK Bioscience are up nearly 262% since starting trading in Seoul in the first quarter, the highest among 94 major offerings since January, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The IPO raised $1.3 billion for the firm, which is a local COVID-19 vaccine-production partner with AstraZeneca Plc.
The company was the first of five Korean firms to raise more than $1 billion each through new-share offers this year, with several tech-related names also heading into their business debuts. Most of those deals were buoyed by strong participation from retail investors. As the year progressed, ballooning valuations intensified the regulators’ scrutiny.
SK Bioscience also surpassed two major listings in Shanghai, China Three Gorges Renewables Group and Xuzhou CRRC Times Electric Co., which have increased by more than 140% each. Several other Korean names appear in the 10 top performers globally for the year, including Kakao Pay Corp, Kakaobank Corp and SK IE Technology Co, giving the country more representation in the rankings than any other market.
Shares of SK Bioscience hit a record high in August after local media reported that the company would begin shipping 1.1 million doses at that time. The company was transferred the same month to MSCI Inc. Inclusion in the index tracked by
But with the stock down nearly 16% since the beginning of December, some of those stellar gains have already faded. It is one of Asian health care stocks to tumble on Tuesday following a slump in US biotech companies, as investors reacted to reports that cases of the Omicron variant have been relatively mild.
The health care firm has eight buy recommendations and no sell or hold calls among analysts tracked by Bloomberg.
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