SAMSUNG BIOLOGICS announced on the 28th that its board of directors had decided to conduct a rights offering followed by a public offering of unsubscribed shares, involving the new issuance of 2.27 million common shares. The planned issue price is 1,322,000 won per share, with total proceeds expected to reach 3.0009 trillion won.
The number of new shares issued represents 4.904% of the existing 46,290,951 shares. A 15% discount was applied to the planned issue price.
A SAMSUNG BIOLOGICS official explained, “This capital raising is intended to continue our ‘three-pillar expansion’ strategy—covering production capacity, portfolio, and geographic footprint—through sustained growth, including the acquisition of the Polypeptide Group and the expansion of our Second Bio Campus.”
Of the funds raised, 2.7062 trillion won will be used to acquire a stake in the Polypeptide Group, whose acquisition was recently announced. The remaining 294.8 billion won is scheduled to be invested in facility expansion for the Second Bio Campus in Songdo, Incheon.
Last month, SAMSUNG BIOLOGICS decided to acquire the Polypeptide Group for 1.46 billion Swiss francs (approximately 2.7 trillion won). This marks the largest M&A deal ever conducted in South Korea’s pharmaceutical and biotech industry.
Through this rights offering, SAMSUNG BIOLOGICS plans to accelerate its strategy of “expanding the three pillars” of production capacity, portfolio, and geographic footprint.
First, by completing the acquisition of the Polypeptide Group within the year, the company will be able to expand its CDMO business—which had previously focused on antibody drugs—to include peptides. SAMSUNG BIOLOGICS has been expanding its business scope beyond antibody drugs to include messenger RNA (mRNA) and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). Securing the production facilities in Europe, the U.S., and India owned by Polypeptide Group will further broaden its global production and development network.
The company is also accelerating the expansion of its production capacity in Songdo. Following the completion of Plant 5 at the Songdo Bio Campus 2 last year, SAMSUNG BIOLOGICS plans to sequentially construct Plants 6 through 8. Each plant will have a production capacity of 180,000 liters; once the expansion is completed as planned, the total antibody drug production capacity will increase to 1,385,000 liters.
The rights offering is structured such that 20% of the new shares—454,000 shares—will be allocated first to the employee stock ownership association, with the remainder allocated to existing shareholders. Existing shareholders will be allocated 0.0392737657 new shares for every one existing share they hold. They may also subscribe for additional shares up to a limit of 20% of their allocated amount.
The company anticipates that the financial burden on minority shareholders will be relatively limited, given that the largest shareholder and related parties hold a combined stake of 74.3%.
Any shares left unsubscribed after the employee stock ownership plan and existing shareholders have subscribed will be offered in a public offering. If the public offering is undersubscribed, the joint lead underwriters will underwrite the remaining shares. Subscription rights certificates will also be listed, allowing shareholders who do not wish to participate in the capital increase to sell them.
The record date for the new share allocation is October 6. The employee stock ownership plan subscription will take place on November 9, and the existing shareholder subscription will run from November 9 to 10. If unsubscribed shares arise, the public offering will be conducted on November 12–13. The payment date is November 17, and the new shares are scheduled to be listed on November 30.
John Lim, CEO of SAMSUNG BIOLOGICS, stated, “We carried out this rights offering to lay the groundwork for our leap toward becoming a global top-tier CDMO,” adding, “We will do our utmost to enhance corporate value by steadfastly pursuing the expansion of our three core pillars, including the acquisition of the Polypeptide Group and the expansion of our second biocampus.”
