COVID-19 Vaccine Developer CanSinoBIO Seeks To Raise $743m In STAR IPO

CanSino Biologics Inc (CanSinoBIO), a Chinese biopharmaceutical company that is developing a COVID-19 vaccine candidate, plans to raise a total of 5.2 billion yuan ($743 million) in an initial public offering (IPO) on Shanghai’s Nasdaq-style STAR Market, according to a company filing on Thursday. 

The company, which got listed in Hong Kong after it secured HK$1.259 billion ($162 million) in its IPO in March 2019, intends to offer 24.80 million common shares at a price of 209.71 yuan ($29.9) apiece. It will kick off the subscription exercise on July 31. 

CanSinoBIO will allocate the IPO proceeds to facilitate the vaccine candidates, strengthen the manufacturing base, and for meeting working capital needs. 

State-owned CITIC Securities is acting as the principal for the deal, while China International Capital Corporation Limited (CICC) and Bohai Securities serve as joint sponsors. Morgan Stanley Hoaxin Securities is the financial advisor. CanSinoBIO will float the shares under the symbol “688185”.

Since its inception in 2019 in Tianjin, CanSinoBIO has been engaged in developing innovative vaccine products for treatments. Its flagship Ebola vaccine, Ad5-EBOV, secured approval in China in 2017. Additionally, it has 16 pipeline candidates in the portfolio for 13 infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, pertussis, and COVID-19. 

Its assets under management for the past three years stood at 1.78 billion yuan ($255 million) in 2019, 796 million yuan ($114 million) in 2018 and 866 million yuan ($124 million) in 2017. 

Following the IPO, Qiming Venture Partners unit QM29 Limited will hold 5.26 per cent stake, Lilly Asia Ventures Fund’s LAV Spring (Hong Kong) (4.19%), China Advanced Manufacturing Industry Investment Fund (3.57%), and Lilly Asia Ventures III Investment (Hong Kong) (0.99%), and CITIC Securities (0.47%). 

Lilly Asia Ventures Fund, Qiming Venture Venture Partners and others had collectively invested 450 million yuan ($64 million) in CanSinoBIO’s Series C round of funding in 2017. Previously, in 2015, Lilly Asia and Qiming had invested $41.20 million in its Series B round of financing. The company’s early-stage backers also include SDIC Fund Management, Gopher Asset Management, Fortune Capital, Goldstone, among others. 

Earlier on July 16, the HK-listed Junshi Biosciences became China’s first dual-listed biopharma firm after raising nearly 4.84 billion yuan ($692 million) in its STAR Market IPO.