ToolGen Records Subscription Competition Rate of 164.13 to 1... Subscription Deposits Reach 1.4361 Trillion KRW

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Hyowon] ToolGen (CEO Kim Young-ho and Lee Byung-hwa), which is pursuing a transfer listing to KOSDAQ, recorded a subscription competition rate of 164.13 to 1 in the public offering subscription held on the 2nd and 3rd.

According to Korea Investment & Securities, the lead manager for ToolGen's KOSDAQ listing, a total of 41,033,090 subscription applications were received for 250,000 shares, which is 25% of the total 1 million shares offered, and the subscription deposit amounted to approximately 1.4361 trillion KRW.

A company official stated, “The lead manager voluntarily established a general investor protection measure by granting a put option on the public offering shares for up to three months from the listing date, which is believed to have positively influenced this general subscription,” adding, “Although there were difficulties in pricing the public offering amid the recently tightened financial market conditions, we concluded the offering with satisfactory results.”

The put option is a right allowing participants in the general public offering to sell the shares back to the lead manager at 90% of the public offering price. If the stock price falls below 90% of the public offering price after listing, investors can exercise the put option within the designated period to minimize losses.

Previously, ToolGen finalized the public offering price at 70,000 KRW on the 25th and 26th of last month for institutional investors. Accordingly, the company will raise a total of 70 billion KRW based on the public offering price and plans to actively invest these funds in research and development, clinical trials, advanced equipment introduction, and recruitment of excellent researchers to strengthen CRISPR patent competitiveness and rapidly proceed with therapeutic clinical trials targeting the global market.

ToolGen currently has pipelines including ▲Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A treatment (TGT-001) ▲wet age-related macular degeneration treatment (TG-wAMD) ▲hemophilia B treatment (TG-LBP) ▲inhibitor (antibody against coagulation factors) hemophilia treatment (TG-AT) ▲chronic HBV infection treatment (TG-HBV) ▲next-generation CAR-T cell therapy (Styx-T Platform). Among these, the next-generation CAR-T cell therapy entered US Phase 1 clinical trials in 2022, and the Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A and wet age-related macular degeneration treatments are expected to enter US Phase 1 clinical trials in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

ToolGen's scheduled KOSDAQ listing date is the 10th of this month, and the expected market capitalization after the transfer listing is approximately 548.9 billion KRW based on the public offering price.

ToolGen CEOs Kim Young-ho and Lee Byung-hwa emphasized, “Taking this listing as an opportunity, we will further strengthen our core patent technology and clinical development competitiveness, accelerate commercialization in each field including platform, therapeutic development, and green bio, and create future growth engines for the company,” adding, “Through this, we will leap forward as a global gene editing specialist company with higher corporate value and rapidly expand into the global market.”

Founded in 1999, ToolGen is a global leader in the gene editing field and has led the invention of the core technology, gene scissors, and world-class technological advancements over the past 20 years. Its main business areas include ▲patent monetization based on the gene editing (CRISPR gene scissors core patent) platform ▲development of therapeutics applying gene editing technology ▲improvement of plant and animal (seed) varieties through gene editing technology.

Based on core competencies such as ▲expertise in gene editing technology development ▲global CRISPR core patent competitive advantage ▲platform business profitability differentiated from other bio companies ▲next-generation gene scissors application development technology ▲diverse gene and cell therapy pipelines ▲growth potential of gene editing in the agro-biological industry, ToolGen’s strategy is to realize the company’s second and third leaps forward.