China's 3SBio returns to market and pulls in $710.7M in HK IPO

Mainland China biotech 3SBio raised $710.7 million through an initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx), reaching the high end of expectations two years after delisting from the Nasdaq and going private and highlighting a series of other recent biotech-related capital moves in Greater China.

IFR reported that the company, aided by shareholder CITIC Private Equity, raised HK$5.51 billion that it said in a prospectus would be used to fund acquisitions and spur hiring. Thomson Reuters owns the IFR and Reuters news agency.

The shares were priced at HK$9.10 each with 3SBio offering 484.9 million new shares and CITIC Private Equity another 121.2 million shares, Reuters said, citing the IFR report.

The move was flagged in February in a HKEx filing that said 3SBio has 8 potential candidates in nephrology and 6 in oncology, including three monoclonal antibody therapies, as well as autoimmune disease targets, among 20 potential products listed. At the time, analysts said the company wanted to raise $500 million.

In November, 3SBio in-licensed South Korea-based PharmAbcine biotech cancer drug candidate tanibirumab in Greater China and this year announced a deal on injectables with Sirton.

The HKEx notice was co-sponsored by Citic Securities International, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

Among other listing or capital offerings this year, Shanghai Haohai Biological and Hua Han Bio-Pharmaceutical raised cash on the HKEx, while other China companies, Nasdaq-listed WuXi AppTec ($WX) and NYSE-listed Mindray ($MR), are now the subject of management offers to go private.

- here's the story from Reuters
- and the 3SBio prospectus