Daewoong Pharmaceutical Disposes 300,000 Treasury Shares to Holding Company Daewoong... "Securing Future Growth Engines"

Daewoong Pharmaceutical Headquarters (Provided by Daewoong Pharmaceutical)

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] Daewoong Pharmaceutical is disposing of its treasury shares to secure future growth engines.

Daewoong Pharmaceutical announced on the 18th that at the board meeting held on the same day, it resolved to dispose of 306,513 treasury shares to its holding company Daewoong through an off-market block trade to secure funds for research and development (R&D) investment. Additionally, Daewoong also announced that it resolved to acquire shares of its subsidiary Daewoong Pharmaceutical on the same day.

The 306,513 shares that Daewoong Pharmaceutical is disposing of to the holding company Daewoong represent 2.6% of the total listed shares of 11,586,575. The price per share is 130,500 KRW, the same as the closing price on that day, making the total disposal amount 39,999,946,500 KRW.

Daewoong Pharmaceutical plans to use the cash secured through this disposal for R&D investment and overseas business expansion. Specifically, the funds will be used for ▲ Hoistar tablets, niclosamide injections, and stem cell therapies under development as COVID-19 treatments ▲ Pexuprazan for gastroesophageal reflux disease ▲ Inavogliflozin for diabetes treatment ▲ DWN12088 for pulmonary, renal, and skin fibrosis indications ▲ Dual-target autoimmune disease treatments DWP212525 and DWP213388, among others. Additionally, Daewoong Pharmaceutical is conducting joint research on new target anticancer drugs with U.S.-based A2A Pharma.

Seungho Jeon, CEO of Daewoong Pharmaceutical, said, “We will use this investment as a catalyst to expand R&D projects and global business,” adding, “We will prove Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s future growth potential based on a more stable foundation.”

Yoon Jaechun, CEO of Daewoong, also stated, “This decision to acquire treasury shares expresses the management’s confidence in Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s future value while strengthening responsible management,” and added, “We will continue to strive to enhance corporate and shareholder value and prove future growth potential.”

Meanwhile, Daewoong has increased its stake in Daewoong Pharmaceutical to 47.7%, enabling more stable control over the subsidiary’s management. It secured funds for the share acquisition without additional debt by receiving approximately 40 billion KRW in dividends from its subsidiaries Daewoong Development and Sanwoong Development, which achieved record-high performance last year.