The small molecule pharmaceuticals developer priced its Shanghai Stock Exchange IPO at 20.43 per share; the new stock is expected to start trading later this month.
Orange prescription bottles. Image credit: Haley Lawrence/Unsplash
Chipscreen Biosciences Co., Ltd. (微芯生物, 688321:SH) filed for an IPO in the new Shanghai bourse-based marketplace, known as Star Market, in March 2019. It has passed screening and now is ready to kick off trading with the second batch of tech firms, which is composed of Amlogic and Friendess Technology, on the sci-tech board.
Dedicated to providing patients with affordable innovative therapeutic drugs, the Shenzhen-based company is so far the only mainland China producer of Sidabenamine -- a cure for peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL).
To stay afloat in the highly competitive local biotech scene, Chipscreen has been throwing heaps of money at R&D. For instance, it spent as much as 29.22% of annual revenue in this area last year. That figure was even higher (37.9% and 34%) in the preceding two one-year periods.
Getting back to the upcoming IPO, the sky-high P/E ratio of 467.51 is what distinguishes the firm from other listed and soon-to-be-listed tech enterprises on the Star Market. And this figure apparently has something to do with size and scale.
The biotech startup is among the smallest enterprises to be listed at the fresh venue. Its total operating income was about CNY 147 million (USD 21 million) in 2018. With a margin of over 21% in the same year, the company earned more than CNY 31 million (USD 4.4 million) in net profit.
Although the financial results are pretty modest, the market thinks this is just a humble beginning: Chinese brokerage company Lianxun Securities expects Chipscreen to boost its revenue, reaching CNY 191 million (USD 27.08 million), CNY 358 million (USD 50.75 million) and CNY 579 million (USD 82.09 million) in 2019, 2020 and 2021 respectively.