Celltrion Merger Surfacing... Will It Be a Signal for Stock Price Rebound?

Celltrion Group Holding Company Integration Decision... First Step Toward Merger of Three Listed Companies
Stock Prices Rise Together After a Long Time... "Attention on Shaking Off Prolonged Slump"

Seo Jung-jin, Honorary Chairman of Celltrion Group, held an online press conference on February 18th to announce information about the COVID-19 antibody treatment, Rekkeuronaju, among others.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Minwoo Lee] The merger of the unlisted holding companies within the Celltrion Group has begun. Analysts suggest that the anticipated merger of the three listed Celltrion Group companies?Celltrion Healthcare, Celltrion Pharm, and Celltrion?is becoming more tangible. Attention is focused on whether this will serve as a catalyst to reverse the previously sluggish stock prices.

As of 9:47 AM on the 27th, Celltrion's stock price rose 1.14% from the previous day to 267,000 KRW. At the same time, Celltrion Healthcare and Celltrion Pharm also increased by 2.10% and 1.92%, respectively. The stock prices of the three Celltrion companies, which had been steadily declining, showed a rare simultaneous upward trend.

Previously, Celltrion's stock price had been on a downward trajectory since reaching a peak of 390,000 KRW on January 13. It has fallen approximately 26.5% this year up to the previous day. Since dropping to the 200,000 KRW range on April 21, it has never recovered to the 300,000 KRW level. Even positive news about the development of COVID-19 treatments failed to move the stock price. Celltrion Healthcare and Celltrion Pharm also continued their declines, falling about 30% and 39% respectively this year. Celltrion Pharm maintained the second-largest market capitalization on the KOSDAQ until the 7th but recently slipped to fourth place.

The simultaneous rise in the previously declining stock prices is interpreted as growing expectations due to the acceleration of the merger among the three Celltrion companies. The day before, Celltrion Holdings announced that it would merge with Celltrion Healthcare Holdings and Celltrion Skincure at a ratio of 0.5159638 shares of Celltrion Healthcare Holdings and 0.0254854 shares of Celltrion Skincure per one common share of Celltrion Holdings. Celltrion Holdings is the holding company of Celltrion, Celltrion Healthcare Holdings is the holding company of Celltrion Healthcare, and Celltrion Skincure is the group's cosmetics sales company. This will transform the Celltrion Group into a single holding company structure.

Industry insiders expect the merger of the three Celltrion companies to proceed in earnest. About a year ago, in September last year, the Celltrion Group established Celltrion Healthcare Holdings and announced plans to unify it with Celltrion Holdings and then proceed with the merger of the three listed Celltrion companies. This marks the first step in that process. Previously, there were suspicions and regulatory controversies regarding stockpiling and preferential transactions because Celltrion Healthcare purchased biosimilars (biopharmaceutical generics) developed by Celltrion and resold them overseas, making inventory tracking difficult.

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