Ingenia Therapeutics (Ingenia), a US-based biotech company, has set its initial public offering (IPO) price at 12,000 won ahead of its KOSDAQ listing. It is the third case this year in which a KOSDAQ offering was priced at or below the bottom of the range, following Chaevi and StradVision. With the KOSDAQ index recently posting steep declines, institutional investors have also been observed hesitating to bet aggressively.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 28th, Ingenia conducted a demand forecast targeting institutional investors from the 20th to the 24th of this month. The proposed IPO price range presented by Ingenia and lead underwriter Samsung Securities was 12,000 to 14,500 won, with the final IPO price set at 12,000 won, the bottom of the range. A total of 307 domestic and foreign institutions participated in the demand forecast, recording a competition ratio of 50.4 to 1.
Sentiment among institutional investors was somewhat mixed. While 47 percent of participating institutions (144) submitted prices at or above the top of the range, 53 percent (163) valued the shares at or below the bottom. A total of 24 foreign investment institutions participated, with 18 betting on the top of the range and the remaining six submitting prices at or below the bottom.
Most participating institutions were reluctant to commit to long-term investment. Only 28 institutions, accounting for 9 percent of participants, pledged not to sell their shares for at least 15 days after listing. The mandatory lockup ratio based on subscribed volume (2.23 percent) was the second lowest among companies that completed KOSPI and KOSDAQ offerings this year, following HLB Genomics (1.91 percent), which completed its demand forecast on the 8th of this month.
The market viewed the recent slump in the KOSDAQ market as weakening investor sentiment toward newly listed offerings. When expectations for share price gains after listing fade, institutions' willingness to invest over the medium to long term inevitably declines. Ingenia plans to receive subscriptions from general investors from the 30th to the 31st of this month before making its final entry into the KOSDAQ market on August 18.
