China-based vaccines developer Jiangsu Recbio Technology has raised HK$765 million ($97.7 million) in an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong on Thursday. The funds will go towards challenging the dominant foreign player Merck & Co in China’s highly-concentrated HPV (Human papillomavirus) vaccine market.
Recbio, which counts Sequoia Capital China and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings among investors, sold almost 30.9 million shares at a price of HK$24.8 ($3.2) apiece. Four cornerstone investors, including affiliates of Chinese drug maker Yangtze River Pharmaceutical Group, Harvest Global Investments, and Sequoia Capital China, collectively subscribed to over half of the issued shares at the offering price for $53 million in total.
