이 기사는 2019년 12월 09일 08시00분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

South Korea’s CJ Healthcare has named Korea Investment & Securities, Samsung Securities and JP Morgan as bookrunners for its initial public offering (IPO).

CJ Healthcare plans to list by 2021, focusing on getting its deal through smoothly. With choosing Korea Investment & Securities and Samsung Securities, the company appears to be aiming at a balance between old and new players that are top tier in biotech IPOs. Meanwhile, it was widely anticipated that JP Morgan would secure a senior role on the listing, because it was the only foreign investment bank among candidates.

Before the result was announced, industry insiders named Samsung Securities as a frontrunner in the race, which was then considered unexpected as it is not among the Big Three names in the domestic IPO market.

Samsung Securities reportedly made it to the upper ranks in the short list even before a presentation competition was held, where top officials of an issuer and underwriters meet in person and discuss IPO strategies. That was because of the proposal submitted by the brokerage house, which probably contained an IPO value and strategies very much agreeing with CJ Healthcare.

Samsung Securities also has been active in the biotech IPO market this year, securing a bookrunner role on multiple deals – which range from Prestige Bio Pharm’s planned IPO that could value the company at more than a trillion won to mid-size flotations by KoBioLabs, J2H Biotech and NGeneBio.

Meanwhile, Korea Investment & Securities, with its strongest track record, is considered a traditionally dominant player in the domestic biotech IPO market. It acted as bookrunner when the Samsung Biologics made a stock market debut in 2016, which currently is the largest biotech company in the country by market capitalization.

“Both Korea Investment & Securities and Samsung Securities have experience of working with Kolmar Korea, the parent company of CJ Healthcare, on debt capital and M&A deals,” a market insider said. “But apart from such connections, [CJ Healthcare] chose underwriters with a focus on their capability to get the deal through.”

JP Morgan, the only foreign investment bank among CJ Healthcare’s bookrunners, will have responsibility for attracting bids from major overseas institutional investors. JP Morgan reportedly received strong support from three private equity firms – H&Q, Mirae Asset Private Equity and STIC Investment – which invested in the company when it was acquired by Kolmar Korea last year.

JP Morgan’s Korea ECM head Ha Jin-soo also had worked with CJ Healthcare when he was with NH Investment & Securities, in the company’s first attempt at a listing in 2016.

(By reporter Yang Jung-woo)