Hong Kong could become a new hot-spot for Biotech Listings, Caixin reports, following its recent legislation regarding IPOs in that industry.
The Hong Kong Stock Exchange in December announced plans to allow pre-revenue biotech companies to list, which will hope to attract fledgling companies from the mainland that cannot match the multinationals in terms of the scale of their R&D, and so preclude themselves from big profits.
According to the Zhang Leidi, managing director of China Life Private Equity Investment Co., the HKSE’s move to allow remove restrictions on revenue and profit could take advantage of an industry where there has been much recent activity. Within the last two years, the number of biotech/pharma enterprises in China has grown significantly, fueled by government subsidies.