Innovent Biologics Raises $421 Million in Hong Kong IPO

(Bloomberg) -- Innovent Biologics Inc., a Chinese biotech firm backed by Temasek Holdings Pte, raised HK$3.3 billion ($421 million) after pricing its Hong Kong initial public offering near the top of a marketed range, people with knowledge of that matter said.

The Suzhou-based company priced it sale of 236.35 million shares at HK$13.98 apiece, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. The shares were marketed at HK$12.50 to HK$14 each.

Innovent’s offering will add to the $32 billion of first-time shares sales in Hong Kong this year, almost three times the amount during the same period in 2017, data compiled by Bloomberg show. This year’s three biotech offerings, from BeiGene Ltd., Ascletis Pharma Inc. and Hua Medicine, are all trading below offer price, the data show.

An external spokeswoman for Innovent said she couldn’t immediately comment.

Innovent’s final price implies a market value of $2 billion, according to terms for the deal obtained by Bloomberg earlier. The company expects to begin trading Oct. 31, a prospectus shows.

The IPO attracted 10 cornerstone investors, including Sequoia Capital, Capital Group Cos. and Temasek, that agreed to buy a total of about $245 million of stock, the terms show. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and China Merchants Securities Co. were joint sponsors of the sale.

To contact the reporter on this story: Crystal Tse in Hong Kong at ctse44@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Scent at bscent@bloomberg.net, Timothy Sifert

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