Celltrion to transfer to Kospi on Friday

Celltrion, a biosimilar maker listed on South Korea’s second-tier bourse Kosdaq, will begin trading on the top-tier market Kospi starting Friday, according to the Korea Exchange on Wednesday.

Celltrion is the largest Kosdaq-listed share, with 31.4 trillion won ($28.9 billion) in market cap as of Wednesday. The maker of biosimilar drugs, such as Remsima and Truxima, is expected to constitute Korean markets’ composite benchmark indexes such as KRX 300 and Kospi 200.

On Monday, the KRX, operator of both the Kospi and Kosdaq, gave Celltrion a nod to be delisted on the Kosdaq and transferred to theKospi. This came about four months after Celltrion in its board meeting on Sept. 29, 2017 decided to move to the top-tier market on expectation of an enhanced foreign capital influx.

But Celltrion is facing a bumpy road in attracting foreign investment. Since Deutsche Bank AG pointed to inflated earnings of the firm in a note on Jan. 19, Celltrion shares took 19.8 percent losses for the past 14 trading days. Foreign investors sold off shares worth 1.1 trillion won over the cited period. Celltrion sank 10 percent on Wednesday alone.

Founded in 2002, Celltrion has been trading on the Kosdaq since July 2008.

By Son Ji-hyoung 
(consnow@heraldcorp.com)