(Yicai) Jan. 8 -- Hengrui Pharmaceuticals, China’s most valuable publicly listed drugmaker, has become the latest Chinese mainland-traded company to apply for a Hong Kong floatation, aiming to raise new funds for research and development.

Hengrui Pharma intends to use the proceeds to set up new production and R&D facilities worldwide and expand or upgrade existing factories in China, according to a notice posted on Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing’s website on Jan. 6. Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and Huatai International Financial Holdings are the listing’s joint sponsors.

The company, based in Jiangsu province, went public in Shanghai in 2000, banking CNY479 million (USD65.3 million) from its only fundraiser on record. Those shares [SHA: 600276] closed down 1.1 percent at CNY43.55 (USD5.94) apiece today, giving Hengrui Pharma a market capitalization of CNY277.8 billion (USD37.9 billion).

Starting out as a generic drug manufacturer, Hengrui Pharma has cranked up investment in innovative medicines. The company has a specialized R&D team of 5,500 staff and 14 research centers globally as of Sept. 30.

According to its listing prospectus, revenue from innovative drugs made up 48 percent of the company’s total income in the first nine months of last year, up from 43 percent in 2023 and 38 percent in 2022.

Net profit jumped 37 percent to CNY4.6 billion (USD629.6 million) in the first three quarters of 2024 from a year earlier, while revenue rose 19 percent to CNY20.2 billion (USD2.8 billion). Compound annual growth has been around 14 percent since 2013, outpacing the global pharmaceuticals market at about 4 percent.

Hengrui Pharma has ranked among the top 50 global drug companies in industry magazine Pharmaceutical Executive's annual rankings for six straight years. Additionally, the firm secured the eighth spot on Citeline's 2024 list of the top 25 pharma firms by R&D pipeline size.

Editor: Martin Kadiev