A nurse in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region injects a women with COVID-19 vaccine. China has administered more than 1.01 billion doses as of June 19, according to data released by the National Health Commission on June 20. Photo: cnsphoto

 

Beijing-based AIM Vaccine Co, China's second-largest vaccine maker after Sinopharm subsidiary China National Biotec Group (CNBG), on Wednesday filed its IPO application with the Hong Kong stock exchange to finance its vaccine R&D and the build-out of new production facilities.

The listing on the main board of Hong Kong bourse is sponsored by Goldman Sachs (Asia), China International Capital Corporation Hong Kong Securities Limited, China Securities (International) Corporate Finance Company Limited and Macquarie Capital Limited.

The company didn't disclose how much it plans to raise in its Hong Kong stock market debut. 

AIM Vaccine is developing multiple coronavirus pipeline candidates "spanning all four technology routes validated by approved vaccines, namely mRNA, inactivated virus, recombinant adenoviral vector and recombinant protein," according to its application proof on Wednesday.

The company, only secondary to CNBG, is the largest privately owned vaccine maker in the country as measured by its approved lot release volume of about 60 million doses last year.

AIM Vaccine kicked off a pre-IPO tutoring process for its share offering in the STAR Market in Shanghai at the end of December. 

With Wednesday's application, the vaccine maker is set to join a flurry of IPOs in Hong Kong.

Chinese mainland-based companies have become the focus of the Hong Kong market where the implementation of the national security law for Hong Kong is seen as beefing up the city's financial resilience. 

A fresh example was Nayuki Holdings that became the world's first publicly listed milk tea chain with its IPO debut in Hong Kong on Wednesday. 

Despite a tepid market response - its shares plunged 13.54 percent on the IPO day, Pan Pan, managing partner of Tiantu Capital, which has taken the lead in rounds of pre-IPO funding into the bubble tea maker, reckoned that the tea market is huge and Nayuki is destined to grow as a 100 billion-level company, according to media reports.

The tea chain's market capitalization totaled HK$29.36 billion ($3.78 billion) as of Wednesday's market close.

Global Times