Hillhouse-Backed Biotech Firm Jacobio Plans Hong Kong IPO

(Bloomberg) -- Jacobio Pharmaceuticals Co., a Chinese biotechnology company focusing on cancer treatments, is planning a Hong Kong initial public offering as soon as this year, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Beijing-based company could raise as much as $400 million in the offering, one of the people said. Jacobio is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and China International Capital Corp. on the proposed listing and is readying a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private.

Jacobio is set to join a record wave of fundraising in the health-care sector which is experiencing a surge in investor interest amid the coronavirus pandemic. In Hong Kong, a string of biotech and health-care firms have gone public this year, raising nearly $4.5 billion, almost as much as 2019’s total, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Many of the deals were so heavily oversubscribed by retail investors that the city’s clawback rules limited the amount of stock available to others, leaving institutional funds struggling to get their hands on it. Ophthalmic pharmaceutical company Ocumension Therapeutics had a staggering retail oversubscription rate of 1,896 times, the second-highest in Hong Kong this year.

Founded in 2015, Jacobio has research and development centers in Beijing and Boston and has a pipeline consisting of small-molecule agents and antibody products, according to its website. Jacobio raised $55 million in Series C funding in August 2018 led by Qiming Venture Partners and Hillhouse Capital. In February this year it completed a Series C+ financing led by Lilly Asia Ventures.

A representative for Jacobio did not respond to requests for comment. Representatives for CICC and Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

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