Korea’s IPO market gains steam amid global pandemic
Yunsang ko and Taeho Lee
Jul 02, 2020 (Gmt+09:00)
SK Biopharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. made a strong market debut on the Korea Exchange, as the country's IPO market has been gaining steam with newly listed companies seeing an average 55.6 percent hike from their offering price during the first half of the year, according to Korea Exchange.
On July 2, SK Biopharmaceuticals doubled the price of its offering price of 48,000 won in its first trading day. It opened at 98,000 won per share and closed at 127,000 won, reaching the exchange’s daily limit of 29.59 percent and recording a 159.18 percent growth compared to the initial offering price.
On July 3, the company's shares hit the daily limit again surging 29.92 percent to 165,000 won per share. The company's market cap is valued at approximately 12.9 trillion won, ranking 22nd place on KOSPI.
Concerns about the company being overvalued will be inevitable if share prices continue to climb. SK Biopharmaceutical has been valued between five trillion won and 9 trillion won and the target share price set between 100,000 won and 110,000 won by financial firms.
SK Biopharmaceuticals is the biotech/pharma unit of Korea’s conglomerate SK Group. The company was the first domestic pharmaceutical to obtain approvals from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its original drugs.