Shares of Guangzhou Innogen Pharmaceutical Group soared on their Hong Kong debut, buoyed by strong investor appetite for China’s pharmaceuticals sector, which has enjoyed rising valuations and solid performance.
Trading under the stock code 2591, Innogen’s shares first changed hands at HK$72 on Friday, almost four times more than the initial public offering (IPO) price of HK$18.68 despite a declining market.
The debut performance of the maker of drugs for diabetes and other metabolic diseases followed Chinese vaccine maker Ab&B Bio-Tech’s 158 per cent gain on its first day of trading on Monday.
The success of Innogen’s share sale was bolstered by a rally in major biotech companies in Hong Kong, which gained an average of 137 per cent this year, according to a CCB International report on Wednesday. Investors were willing to pay more for each unit of sales in the sector as the price-to-sales ratio rose to 18.8 times from 8.7 times in December 2024.
Innogen, which raised HK$683 million (US$87.2 million) through its IPO, followed peers that also took advantage of the Hong Kong exchange’s Chapter 18A listing rule for pre-revenue biotech firms. These included Nanjing Leads Biolabs and TransThera Sciences, whose shares have jumped 88.3 per cent and 263.5 per cent, respectively, since their debuts this year.
Innogen also emerged as one of the most popular IPOs among retail investors, as many were unable to successfully subscribe to the stock during the IPO stage, boosting sentiment for its debut.
