Bora Pharmaceuticals Co (保瑞藥業) is still looking at contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) as potential merger and acquisition (M&A) targets, as the company continues to expand its business scale, the medicine and healthcare product maker said yesterday.
The company has seen its market value surge by more than 50-fold in seven years through a series of strategic M&As, including acquiring Japan-based Eisai Co’s subsidiary and plant in Tainan’s Guantian District (官田) in 2013 and US-based Impax Laboratories Inc’s subsidiary and plant in Miaoli County’s Jhunan Township (竹南) in 2018.
“We expect to see new M&A opportunities emerge next year,” Chinese-language online news outlet Cnyes.com quoted Bora Pharmaceuticals chairman Bobby Sheng (盛保熙) as saying. “There are not many buyers in the US M&A market and the valuations of many CDMOs are much cheaper than before, which is relatively beneficial to us.”
Photo: CNA
Sheng made the remarks at a ceremony at the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE), where the company made its share debut on the main board after transferring its listing from the Taipei Exchange.
Bora Pharmaceuticals shares fell 3.1 percent to close at NT$657, in line with losses across the main exchange. Prior to yesterday, the stock had surged more than 60 percent since the beginning of this year.
Due to the growing market demand for drugs, several major clients have already discussed placing more orders, Bora Pharmaceuticals said.
As a result, the company has furthered its acquisition efforts, including factories, companies and product portfolios, it said.
It would also continue to adjust product strategy at its subsidiary TWi Pharmaceuticals Inc (安成藥) in a bid to diversify away from generic drugs, after the unit in August acquired six brand product licenses and technologies from Morristown, New Jersey-based Almatica Pharma Inc, it said.
The new strategy would enable Bora to leverage its sales platforms to enter the brand product market, create a new revenue driver and improve its profit margin, as well as allow the company to have more resources for future investment, it said.
Bora Pharmaceuticals’ consolidated revenue grew 50.25 percent year-on-year to NT$13.25 billion (US$422.5 million) in the first 11 months of this year, ranking second among Taiwanese pharmaceutical companies, TWSE data showed.
Net profit in the first three quarters totaled NT$2.47 billion, up 149.43 percent from the same period last year, with earnings per share rising from NT$10.12 to NT$24.63 and gross margin improving from 35.02 percent to 48.16 percent, the data showed.
Taiwan’s exports soared 56 percent year-on-year to an all-time high of US$64.05 billion last month, propelled by surging global demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing and cloud service infrastructure, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) called the figure an unexpected upside surprise, citing a wave of technology orders from overseas customers alongside the usual year-end shopping season for technology products. Growth is likely to remain strong this month, she said, projecting a 40 percent to 45 percent expansion on an annual basis. The outperformance could prompt the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and
Two Chinese chipmakers are attracting strong retail investor demand, buoyed by industry peer Moore Threads Technology Co’s (摩爾線程) stellar debut. The retail portion of MetaX Integrated Circuits (Shanghai) Co’s (上海沐曦) upcoming initial public offering (IPO) was 2,986 times oversubscribed on Friday, according to a filing. Meanwhile, Beijing Onmicro Electronics Co (北京昂瑞微), which makes radio frequency chips, was 2,899 times oversubscribed on Friday, its filing showed. The bids coincided with Moore Threads’ trading debut, which surged 425 percent on Friday after raising 8 billion yuan (US$1.13 billion) on bets that the company could emerge as a viable local competitor to Nvidia
BARRIERS: Gudeng’s chairman said it was unlikely that the US could replicate Taiwan’s science parks in Arizona, given its strict immigration policies and cultural differences Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登), which supplies wafer pods to the world’s major semiconductor firms, yesterday said it is in no rush to set up production in the US due to high costs. The company supplies its customers through a warehouse in Arizona jointly operated by TSS Holdings Ltd (德鑫控股), a joint holding of Gudeng and 17 Taiwanese firms in the semiconductor supply chain, including specialty plastic compounds producer Nytex Composites Co (耐特) and automated material handling system supplier Symtek Automation Asia Co (迅得). While the company has long been exploring the feasibility of setting up production in the US to address
OPTION: Uber said it could provide higher pay for batch trips, if incentives for batching is not removed entirely, as the latter would force it to pass on the costs to consumers Uber Technologies Inc yesterday warned that proposed restrictions on batching orders and minimum wages could prompt a NT$20 delivery fee increase in Taiwan, as lower efficiency would drive up costs. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi made the remarks yesterday during his visit to Taiwan. He is on a multileg trip to the region, which includes stops in South Korea and Japan. His visit coincided the release last month of the Ministry of Labor’s draft bill on the delivery sector, which aims to safeguard delivery workers’ rights and improve their welfare. The ministry set the minimum pay for local food delivery drivers at