Samsung BioLogics, the biopharmaceutical business arm of Samsung Group, has kicked off the process of going public, the long-awaited initial public offering (IPO) that is expected to be one of the country’s largest ones for this year.

According to multiple sources from the investment bank industry on Friday, Samsung BioLogics submitted a preliminary IPO application to the Korea Exchange (KRX) in the morning, seeking approval for its listing on the main Kospi market. Considering that preliminary application review results normally come out within 45 working days after its submission, Samsung BioLogics is expected to complete its listing by the end of November.

Industry observers have anticipated the market value of Samsung BioLogics to reach 10 trillion won ($9.06 billion), becoming one of the top 30 stocks by market capitalization in the nation. It is expected to draw about 3 trillion won in the IPO.

Once Samsung BioLogics is listed, it will be the largest IPO in the second half of 2016 in the country after Lotte Group in June decided to postpone the IPO of Hotel Lotte Co., dubbed to be this year’s largest, amid prosecution investigation into the retail conglomerate. It will be also the first biopharmaceutical firm to be listed in the main stock market in a decade. An unnamed KRX official expected its listing to bring vitality to the local stock market that currently lacks promising heavyweight stocks as bellwether shipbuilding, steel, and auto stocks remain lackluster due to the slowdown in their industries. The IPO of Samsung BioLogics with huge growth potential will likely be certainly a new investment opportunity to retail investors, too.

Samsung BioLogics is one of the world’s top three contract manufacturing organizations (CMO) for biomedicines with an annual production capacity of 180,000 liters. Last year, the company logged an operating loss of 203.6 billion won while it raked in 91.2 billion won in sales. The company plans to use the proceeds from the IPO to invest in expanding its annual production capacity to 360,000 liters by 2018.

By Song Gwang-sup, Park Yoon-koo

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