Samsung BioLogics Co., the biopharmaceutical business arm of South Korean conglomerate Samsung Group, has drawn more than double the estimated 2 trillion won ($1.76 billion) worth of its planned initial public offering (IPO) from foreign institutional investors during road shows, raising expectations for the success of this year’s blockbuster IPO in the main Korean bourse.

According to multiple sources from the investment bank industry on Friday, Samsung BioLogics has invited overseas institutional investors to its IPO roadshows held in Hong Kong and Singapore from October 17 to present the company’s IPO plans and growth potential to attract investment funds. Over the past week, offshore institutional investors are said to have shown strong appetite for the company’s upcoming IPO, offering a total of $5 billion. Considering that more road shows are planned over the next week, funds the company could tap into would further increase.

Sources also said that many of those overseas investors were also willing to pay high prices in an initial price band of 113,000-136,000 won per share. An unnamed official from the investment bank industry added some big-name long-term investment funds and hedge funds wanted to place a large volume of stock orders, and one investor even wished to buy all of the shares allocated to overseas institutional investors.

Samsung BioLogics on Friday embarked on the second round of overseas IPO roadshow in the United Kingdom and will continue road shows in major cities in the United States. The company aims to complete the book-building process by October 27 after holding a roadshow in Korea. Samsung BioLogics plans to set its IPO price before receiving public subscriptions from retail investors for two days from November 2.

The company plans to offer 16,541,302 shares in the market for the upcoming IPO that is expected to fetch up to 2.25 trillion won in total based on the highest desired price. Its IPO will be the biggest one since Samsung Life Insurance Co.’s 4.88 trillion won debut in 2010. Samsung BioLogics’ market capitalization is expected to reach from 7.5 trillion won to 9 trillion won and become the second largest biotech company in Korea behind Celltrion.

By Song Kwang-sup

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