Crop Protection Developer Inbio to Enter KOSDAQ on the 11th of Next Month

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] Inbio, a crop protection agent developer, will be listed on the KOSDAQ market on the 11th of next month.

On the 24th, Inbio held an initial public offering (IPO) briefing session in Yeouido, Seoul, announcing its listing plan.

Founded in 1997, Inbio is a company that develops crop protection agents such as fungicides and insecticides, focusing on generic products (products with expired patents). It has recorded an average annual growth rate of 5.3% over the past three years, growing rapidly. Since CEO Lee Myung-jae took office in 2005, the company has maintained an average annual sales growth of 11%, and in 2019, it recorded an operating profit margin exceeding 13%, showing the industry's best performance, according to the company.

The key factor behind this performance growth is aggressive investment in product development. Inbio has developed a wide range of new products accounting for 10% of the total domestic market product development over the past 10 years, quickly building a competitive product portfolio and expanding market share.

Inbio's growth strategy mainly consists of expanding eco-friendly business, bio plant activator business, developing new substances for fungicides to localize active ingredients, and entering the global market.

The company stated, "We are the only domestic company certified for green technology with eco-friendly lime sulfur crop protection agents and are developing organic agricultural material products such as sulfur compounds."

Based on technology for developing organic agricultural material products, the company is also promoting the bio plant activator business. With the emphasis on eco-friendly agriculture and agricultural product safety, the Positive List System (PLS), a strengthened pesticide residue standard system, was fully implemented in January last year. Agricultural products grown using products other than registered pesticides for each crop are disposed of. Amid the expected high growth in the bio plant activator field, Inbio has developed organic agricultural material products such as sulfur compound products, pheromone products, and amino acid products, and will start full-scale business operations and product sales from next year.

In the mid to long term, Inbio is conducting a national project for research and development of new substances for fungicides to localize active ingredients. Targeting the global fungicide market worth about 20 trillion KRW, the company plans to complete the development of new fungicides within 2024.

Additionally, Inbio is exporting to China, Taiwan, and Uzbekistan, and registering products in Bolivia, Cambodia, and Pakistan, aiming to complete additional registration of 27 products by next year to accelerate its global market expansion. Sales, which were about 1 billion KRW as of 2019, are also expected to grow rapidly.

In the third quarter of this year, Inbio recorded cumulative consolidated results of 26.8 billion KRW in sales, 3.3 billion KRW in operating profit, and 2 billion KRW in net profit. Last year's results were 33.7 billion KRW in sales, 4.4 billion KRW in operating profit, and 1 billion KRW in net profit.

The total number of shares offered by Inbio is 1.63 million. The expected price range per share is 5,100 to 5,800 KRW, with the expected offering amount between 8.3 billion and 9.5 billion KRW.

The offering price will be finalized through demand forecasting on the 25th and 26th, followed by subscription on the 2nd and 3rd of next month. The lead manager is Korea Investment & Securities.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.