Delisted in Taiwan, drug maker is looking to raise funds on Hong Kong’s exchange

JHL Biotech, a Taiwanese developer of cheaper alternatives to patent-protected biological drugs, is looking to raise US$250 million by re-listing on another stock exchange after taking its shares off the island’s bourse last month. 

Hong Kong has become an attractive option for the firm since an impending revamp of the rules will allow the listing of biotechnology firms that do not have a profit track-record from as soon as next month. The company needs to fund costly clinical trials for the cancer drugs it is developing.

“We want to raise US$250 million, which demands a market valuation of US$1 billion and we are not going to get that on the Taipei Exchange,” said chief executive Racho Jordanov. 

JHL Biotech, based in Zhubei, Hsinchu county, floated 3 per cent of its shares on the over-the-counter market operated by the Taipei Exchange in September 2015. 

It did not raise any funds from the listing, since the shares were given to underwriters which sold them to public investors to pay for the listing expenses. 

The company said in February that its shareholders had voted in favour of a voluntary delisting from the bourse just 29 months after the flotation.