Chinese Drug Developer I-Mab Biopharma Said To File For US IPO

I-Mab Biopharma Co., a Chinese drug developer, has filed confidentially for a US initial public offering as the company works on a private fundraising, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The firm is working with financial advisers on the US share sale that could raise about $200 million, said the people, asking not to be identified because the information is private. The company is poised to raise about $30 million to $40 million in its latest funding round, valuing the business at $800 million, one of the people said. WuXi Biologics (Cayman) Inc. are among the investors, the people said.

I-Mab, which develops treatments for cancer and autoimmune disease, counts Hillhouse Capital, Ally Bridge Group, Hony Capital and CDH Investments among existing backers, according to its website. Representatives for I-Mab and WuXi Biologics declined to comment.

I-Mab would be the first Chinese biotech firm to list in the US since Zai Lab Ltd.’s $173 million offering in 2017, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Some of these firms, mostly unprofitable, decided to list in Hong Kong instead after the city’s stock exchange amended listing rules last year to rival its US counterpart.

The drug developer initially considered a Hong Kong listing before switching to the US, people familiar with the matter had said. It would join Stealth Biotherapeutics Inc. which raised $85 million selling shares in New York in February after earlier applying to list in Hong Kong, while cancer-testing startup Grail Inc. also backed away from the Hong Kong market in favor of the US

Biotech companies have raised nearly $3 billion via first-time share sales in Hong Kong since April 2018, when the city’s exchange amended rules to attract unprofitable companies from the industry, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It’s still behind the US where firms from the sector have raised $8.9 billion during the same period, the data shows.

Bloomberg