GI Innovation is showing strong performance on its first day of listing.
At 9:48 a.m. on the 30th, GI Innovation was trading at 22,200 KRW, up 17.15% from the opening price.
GI Innovation started trading at 18,950 KRW, about 45% higher than the public offering price of 13,000 KRW.
Founded in 2017, GI Innovation is a developer of bispecific fusion protein drugs. Using its proprietary platform technology ‘GI-SMART,’ the company is efficiently discovering and developing various combinations of bispecific fusion proteins.
Lee Dong-geon, a researcher at SK Securities, explained, "The immuno-oncology drug candidate GI-101 is expected to file a Phase 1 IND application with its Chinese partner Simcere in the first half of the year, which will trigger milestone payments." He added, "The announcement of efficacy data from ongoing monotherapy and combination therapy clinical trials and the potential for global licensing deals with international pharmaceutical companies based on these data are also expected to increase."
The researcher analyzed, "The freely tradable shares on the listing day are 59.9%," and "about half of these are traded over-the-counter." He continued, "Considering recent OTC prices, the likelihood of short-term selling pressure is low," and explained, "Some angel investors and Series A and B investors find it difficult to trade their shares OTC, and given recent OTC prices, these shares have been trading between approximately 30,000 and 50,000 KRW, indicating a significant loss compared to the current public offering price." He concluded that the possibility of short-term selling pressure after listing is expected to be significantly lower than the actual number of freely tradable shares.
Hyundai Motor Securities expressed confident support for GI Innovation on this day, analyzing that the company has proven the value of its pipeline through comparative clinical trials starting from Phase 1.
Researcher Eom Min-yong of Hyundai Motor Securities explained, "There are three key investment points that make GI Innovation’s KOSDAQ listing noteworthy."
He analyzed, "The allergy treatment GI-301 boldly decided to conduct a 1:1 comparative clinical trial against Roche and Novartis’s Xolair from Phase 1," adding, "Thanks to this, the commercialization potential was confirmed quickly, securing a flagship pipeline."
He continued, "The bispecific fusion protein anticancer drug GI-101 confirmed efficacy such as CR and PR in monotherapy, not relying solely on immuno-oncology combination therapy clinical trials," and added, "The results of the combination therapy clinical trials are even more encouraging."
Furthermore, he emphasized, "The current technology transfer deals amount to about 2.3 trillion KRW, with GI-101’s Chinese rights licensed to Simcere for a whopping 790 million USD, and GI-301 successfully licensed to Yuhan Corporation for 1.4 trillion KRW," adding, "Third-party verification has been completed, and competitiveness has been secured."
Researcher Eom said, "Next month, topline results will be announced from a Korean Phase 1 clinical trial targeting patients with high IgE levels of 700 IU/mL," and expressed expectations, "It could expand indications from atopic dermatitis, which Xolair failed to acquire due to high IgE, to food allergies and asthma." He explained, "The market expansion potential of GI-301 is likely to grow into a product that generates sales larger than the estimated 3.8 billion USD market occupied by Xolair this year."
Lee Byung-geon, chairman of GI Innovation, recently stated in multiple media interviews ahead of the listing, "We will use the raised public offering funds to deliver results quickly and raise the corporate value to 1 trillion KRW (market capitalization) in the short term." CEO Lee expressed confidence, saying, "We should not be overly concerned with short-term stock price volatility," and added, "We will achieve profitability starting in 2024 and reach a market capitalization of 1 trillion KRW."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
