S.Korea pharma Celltrion affiliates jump on merger announcement

Celltrion Pharm

28/09/2020 01:53

** South Korean pharmaceutical company Celltrion Pharm
 068760.KQ  shares rise as much as 19.6%, their biggest intraday
pct gain since June 3
    ** Affiliates Celltrion  068270.KS  rises as much as 4.3%,
while Celltrion HealthCare  091990.KQ  shares rise as much as
8.3% in their biggest intraday pct gain since Aug 13 
    ** Celltrion announced on Friday that the affiliates plan to
merge in order to establish a holding company structure by
end-2021  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nS6N2EV009 
    ** About 1.25 trillion won ($1.06 billion) in combined cash
reserves raises expectations about pipeline development and M&A,
simpler governance structure would make it more approachable to
investors, and large combined market capitalisation would
increase demand by passive funds, says Kim Tae-hee, analyst at
security firm Mirae Asset Daewoo. 
    ** The firms' combined market capitalisation was about 51.9
trillion won as of last week, making it the third largest in
KOSPI  .KS11  if it were a single firm 
    ** Celltrion's experimental COVID-19 treatment has been
approved by South Korea for Phase 2/3 clinical trials
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2GE2SN
    ** The broader KOSPI market  .KS11  was trading up 0.7% as
of 0035 GMT


($1 = 1,173.7100 won)

 ((jungyoon.lee@tr.com ; +82 2 6936 1467;))