Seo Jung-jin, chairman of South Korea’s Celltrion, is touring Hong Kong, New York and Boston this week to draw foreign investors for Celltrion Healthcare that goes public in Korea late this month.

Celltrion Healthcare’s initial public offering is closely linked with Celltrion’s strategy to increase its global presence. The former is responsible for global distribution and marketing of products from the latter. Almost all Celltrion products are purchased by Celltrion Healthcare.

Kosdaq-listed Celltrion finished Thursday 2.5 percent up at 113,500 won ($98).

Celltrion Healthcare debuts also on the Kosdaq market on July 28 in what would be third largest IPO this year. The company is offering 24.6 million shares at a price band of 32,500-41,000 won apiece to gather up 1 trillion won. Its value is expected to go up as high as 5.6 trillion won

In early days, investors raised questions over the marketability of Celltrion products as stockpiles only increased at Celltrion Healthcare with no actual orders from the outside. But the concerns were pushed aside after Singapore`s sovereign wealth fund Temasek announced its investment into Celltrion Healthcare in September 2011, and Celltrion’s flagship biosimilar Remsima was approved in Korea and the U.S. The company would be on a solid growth path if it can draw big names in its IPO.

Celltrion’s business performance has been thriving. Market analysts expect the company’s second-quarter earnings would hit a record high. Operating profit is estimated to jump from 259 billion won ($224 million) last year to 380 billion won this year and 510 billion won next year.

Celltrion filed an NDA in the U.S. last month for Truxima, the world’s first biosimilar to treat blood cancer. Truxima is already launched in five European countries including Germany.

“The biosimilar drug is expected to easily pass the FDA’s review that takes 10 months or so. It will be popular in the American market like it is in Europe,” said Hahn Byung-hwa, a researcher at Eugene Investment & Securities. Expectations are also raised for Herzuma, the company’s investigational biosimilar to treat breast cancer after promising study data presented at the American Cancer Society.

By Hong Jang-won

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