Samsung BioLogics Co., a Samsung Group biosimilar arm, will seek approval this week for its initial public offering before being listed on South Korea's main bourse, stock authorities said Monday.
It is South Korea's largest contract manufacturer of biopharmaceutical products and the world's third-largest producer of biomedicines in terms of production capacity after Switzerland's Lonza Group and Germany's Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals.
Once listed, the market value of Samsung BioLogics would stand at about 10 trillion won (9.02 billion US dollars). It owns 91 percent of Samsung Bioepis which develops copies of biotech drugs called biosimilars.
Samsung BioLogics plans to submit its application Thursday for the IPO estimated at three trillion won, according to the Korea Exchange. It could be listed on the main KOSPI this year.
Samsung BioLogics is one of the country's big three IPOs this year, along with Doosan Bobcat Inc., a construction equipment maker of the Doosan Group, and Netmarble Games Corp., a leading mobile game developer.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com