South Korea’s top brokerage house Mirae Asset Daewoo is making big strides in its global campaign, with its Hong Kong branch managing the initial public offerings of German biotech firm BioNTech and Asia’s largest logistics real estate platform ESR.

With the BioNTech IPO in October, Mirae Asset Daewoo has become the first Korean investment bank to help list a company on the U.S. Nasdaq. The German biotech company raised $150 million, selling fewer shares at a lower price than expected due to market volatility.

Founded in 2008, BioNTech is focused on providing patient-specific treatments for cancer, and boasts a broad pipeline that includes mRNA-based immune activators, antigen-targeting T cells and antibodies, and defined immunomodulators of various immune cell mechanisms. It has also forged partnerships with global pharmaceutical giants including Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Genmab, Sanofi and Bayer.

Mirae Asset’s Hong Kong unit joined the underwriter syndicate for ESR’s blockbuster IPO last week. The logistics real estate developer backed by private equity firm Warburg Pincus began trading on the Hong Kong exchange last Friday, raising $1.6 billion in the second-largest IPO for the city this year.

ESR is the world’s largest Asia-Pacific-focused logistics real estate platform, formed by a merger of Shanghai-based warehousing services firm e-Shang and Singaporean logistics real estate investment firm The Redwood Group in 2016. It operates about 270 logistics facilities across Asia and serves more than 200 clients including Amazon, Alibaba and JD.com. ESR has been one of the most highly anticipated IPOs for the year, with many investors drawn by the burgeoning ecommerce market in the Asia-Pacific region.

As part of efforts to further bolster its global business, Mirae Asset Daewoo announced last week the launch of a special sales unit dedicated to overseas investors, the first platform of its kind among local brokerages. Named “One Asia Equity Sales,” the organization would be led by Kim Shin, chief of the global sales department and former head of the Hong Kong office.

Separately, Mirae Asset Global Investments received the top prize for global business from the Korean Academy of International Business, the first firm in the financial sector to win the award. It was recognized for its active global operations to offer diversified investment opportunities to clients and efforts to broaden the reach of its financial services.

By Park In-hye and Kim Hyo-jin

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]