SK Biopharmaceuticals Co. shares surged in its public market debut Thursday, kicking off what would be South Korea’s biggest initial public offering in three years.

The company’s stock opened on the country’s main Kospi bourse at 98,000 won ($81.5), double its initial offering price of 49,000 won a share.

Shares quickly rose by the daily limit of 30 percent. The stock closed the day at 127,000 won, giving it a valuation of 9.95 trillion won at about 78.3 million shares outstanding.

The company priced its offering at the high end of its indicative range last month after attracting 836 times more orders from institutional orders than expected. Retail investors placed bids worth 31 trillion won, the highest in Korea’s IPO history. It raised 959.3 billion won from the offering, the largest public issue since Celltrion Healthcare Co. in 2017.

SK Biopharmaceuticals was founded in 2011 as a spinoff of SK’s life science business unit, with strengths in treatments for central nervous system disorders. Last year, it became the first Korean company to independently snag an approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its anti-epileptic drug cenobamate.

In 2019, it reported a net loss of 91 billion won on sales of 123.8 billion won.

SK Holdings, the holding entity of SK Group, owns 75 percent of the drugmaker.

By Kim Hyo-jin

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