Shares of PharmaEngine Inc (智擎生技) — a Taiwan-based biopharmaceutical company — jumped on the first day of its listing on the domestic over-the-counter (OTC) market as sentiment remained optimistic over its earnings outlook, dealers said.
However, shares of Tai Tong Food & Beverage Group (瓦城泰統集團), the operator of three restaurant chains with 40 outlets, fell into negative territory in a volatile session at GRETAI Securities Market, after enjoying just a one-day honeymoon with investors.
PharmaEngine shares closed up 51.16 percent from NT$86.00 (US$2.94) issue price to NT$130.00 with 9.54 million shares changing hands. The GRETAI Securities Market index meanwhile was up 0.06 percent at 107.36 yesterday.
However, Tai Tong, which saw a 15-percent rally on its Monday debut and closed at NT$253 from its listing price of NT$220, ended 2.37 percent lower at NT$247 yesterday.
Shares of PharmaEngine rallied soon after the OTC market opened and the momentum continued until the end of the session on expectations that the company’s bottom line will continue to benefit from licensing fee income from its anti-cancer drugs, dealers said.
Though the broader market fell into a consolidation mode after strong gains recently, ample liquidity prompted investors to pick up small-cap and mid-cap stocks, providing support for PharmaEngine, they said.
PharmaEngine, which is capitalized at NT$920 million, issued 10.83 million new shares to raise more than NT$931 million as working capital for future expansion. About 15 percent of the shares were reserved for its employees.
The Taipei-based company tentatively set the issue price at NT$80 initially, but raised it after its shares were about 130 times oversubscribed in the underwriting process.
“The issue price of the stock was relatively low based on its earnings outlook, attracting many bargain hunters today,” Horizon Securities (宏遠證券) analyst Benson Huang (黃重善) said. “The stock had a pretty good honeymoon with investors.”
“PharmaEngine is good at developing anti-cancer drugs, which have become stable sources of income through licensing fees. The products have good potential to grow in the market,” Huang said.
One of PharmaEngine’s products in the pipeline, liposome irinotecan, which targets colorectal, gastric, pancreatic, brain, lung, breast and cervical cancers, is expected to be launched in the third quarter of 2014.
PharmaEngine has licensed US-based counterpart Merrimack Pharmaceuticals to develop the drug in Europe and Asia. The Taiwanese firm has received US$15 million in licensing fees from the US company already and is expected to receive an additional US$205 million in fees in the future.
PharmaEngine had a net profit last year of NT$286 million, or NT$4.01 per share. In the first half of this year, the company reported a net profit of NT$127 million, or NT$1.58 per share.
The major shareholders of PharmaEngine include the National Development Fund (國發基金) of the Executive Yuan, Taiwan-based TTY Biopharm Co (台灣東洋藥品) and China Development Industrial Bank (中華開發工銀).
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
RSS