Hong Kong-based drugmaker Hutchison China MediTech Ltd has filed for an initial public offering in the United States, according to a regulatory filing.
The London-listed biopharmaceutical company, majority owned by Chinese conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd, is also known as Chi-Med.
Far fewer Chinese companies have listed in the United States so far this year than in 2014.
The U.S. IPOs of two Chinese companies raised about USD150 million (HKD1.2 billion) this year to June. In the corresponding period last year, the listing of 10 Chinese companies in the United States had raised over USD3.5 billion (HKD27 billion), according to Thomson Reuters data.
Hutchison China, founded in 2000 by Hutchison Whampoa Ltd, makes cancer and arthritis drugs and medical devices.
The company, which listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2006, has seven drug candidates in clinical-stage trials, three of which it is developing with units of AstraZeneca Plc, Eli Lilly and Co and Nestle SA.
Four of these drug candidates are for tumors and one each for lung cancer and rheumatoid arthritis.
Five of the seven drug candidates could be eligible for accelerated approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Hutchison China said in a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Hutchison China’s revenue more than doubled to USD87.3 million (HKD677 million) in 2014.
The company plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol “HCM”. It has set a target of up to USD100 million for the IPO, according to the filing, although the amount a company says it plans to raise its first IPO filing is usually a placeholder.
BofA Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank Securities are the underwriters for the IPO.
Words: Reuters
Photo: (Illustration) Wikimedia Commons
