S.Korean vaccine firm SK Bioscience sees shares soar 30% on debut (updated)

SK Bioscience Co

18/03/2021 24:24

(Adds milestone, background)
    By Joyce Lee
    SEOUL, March 18 (Reuters) - South Korean firm SK Bioscience
Co Ltd  302440.KS  shares rocketed 30% on their first day of
trading on Thursday, as investor bets on the COVID-19 vaccine
developer and maker's prospects turned it into a nearly $12
billion business.
    The stock opened on Seoul's KOSPI  .KS11  market at 130,000
won per share, double the IPO price of 65,000 won, then quickly
jumped to 169,000 won in early trade, valuing the company at
12.9 trillion won ($11.5 billion). 
    The vaccine developer, in which SK Chemical  285130.KS 
holds a 68.4% stake, raised 1.5 trillion won in the country's
largest initial public offering since mobile game developer
Netmarble  251270.KS  raised 2.7 trillion won in May 2017,
according to Korea Exchange data.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2L60BX
    SK Bioscience has agreements to produce COVID-19 vaccines
for AstraZeneca  AZN.L  and Novavax Inc  NVAX.O  in Korea, and
received regulatory approval in November to begin clinical
trials of its own COVID-19 vaccine.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN2KL0LU urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2ID0BS

 (Reporting by Joyce Lee and Jihoon Lee; Editing by Christopher
Cushing and Kenneth Maxwell)
 ((jungyoon.lee@tr.com; +82 2 6936 1467;))