Voronoi, Reattempts KOSDAQ Listing... 'Expectations for Technology Transfer'

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyungsoo] Drug design specialist Boronoi is lowering its public offering price to reattempt listing on the KOSDAQ market.

Boronoi announced on the 15th that it has submitted a securities registration statement to the Financial Services Commission and has begun the formal public offering process for listing on the KOSDAQ market.

Previously, Boronoi conducted a demand forecast for institutional investors over two days starting March 14, when the situation of Russia's invasion of Ukraine was worsening, but halted the listing process considering investor protection and other factors.

Boronoi decided to retry the public offering after comprehensively considering investor protection, company growth strategy, and market conditions. The adjusted number of shares offered was reduced to 1.3 million shares. The desired offering price range was lowered. The minimum public offering size is 52 billion KRW. The discount rate compared to the per-share valuation was increased to 44.8%. Existing shareholders voluntarily imposed lock-ups on the majority of their shares, raising the proportion of restricted shares after listing to 74.4%. The circulating shares within one month after listing, excluding the public offering shares, decreased to 15.31%. Concerns about overhang (large-scale sale waiting volume) immediately after listing have been alleviated.

Reflecting recent progress in License-Out negotiations, Boronoi disclosed its sales estimates. Sales are estimated to increase by 76% from 14.8 billion KRW last year to 26.1 billion KRW this year. Kim Daegwon, CEO of Boronoi, said, "There have been changes in sales estimates as we negotiate with overseas pharmaceutical companies," adding, "We will do our best to succeed in global technology transfers this year and expand our excellent pipeline."

Based on differentiated technology, Boronoi has achieved a track record exceeding 2.1 trillion KRW by completing a total of four technology transfers, including three U.S. technology exports over the past two years in 2020 and last year. This is the largest scale among companies planning an initial public offering (IPO).

Boronoi has a business model that independently develops promising pipelines for technology transfer through its platform ‘Boronomics,’ which links laboratories and artificial intelligence, and transfers technology from preclinical to clinical phases 1 and 2.

Founded in 2015, Boronoi is a company that develops targeted therapeutics that selectively bind only to disease-causing kinases among over 550 kinases responsible for intracellular signal transduction. Boronoi has been recognized for its technology by solving the problem of existing inhibitors not precisely targeting only mutant proteins causing cancer but also affecting proteins responsible for normal functions, causing side effects, through its core technology called ‘Kinase Profiling.’

Its Blood-Brain Barrier penetration technology is also a significant competitive advantage. Boronoi’s EGFR mutant non-small cell lung cancer treatment achieves a blood-brain barrier penetration rate of 70-100%, higher than global competitors, expected to open a new horizon in the field of brain metastasis lung cancer treatment.

Boronoi will conduct a demand forecast over two days from June 8 to 9. It aims to enter the KOSDAQ market by the end of June. The joint lead managers are Korea Investment & Securities and Mirae Asset Securities.

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