Samsung Biologics to Raise 3 Trillion Won in Equity, Aiming to Evolve from Antibody CDMO into a Comprehensive Biotech Company

[Financial News] Samsung Biologics will carry out a 3 trillion won rights offering.
The move is drawing attention because the company is not simply raising funds to expand production facilities. Instead, it is channeling the money into a three-pronged expansion strategy that includes broadening its business through the acquisition of the Polypeptide Group and increasing production capacity in Songdo.
Samsung Biologics announced on the 28th that its board had approved a rights offering worth a total of 3.0009 trillion won. The company will issue 2.27 million new shares at an indicative price of 1.322 million won per share. The discount rate is 15%, and the capital increase ratio is 4.904%.
Of the funds raised, 2.7062 trillion won will be used to acquire the Polypeptide Group. The remaining 294.8 billion won will be spent on facilities for the expansion of the Songdo Second Bio Campus in Incheon.
The centerpiece of this rights offering is the Polypeptide Group acquisition announced in July.
At the time, Samsung Biologics said it would acquire the Polypeptide Group for 1.46 billion Swiss francs. It is the largest merger and acquisition deal in South Korea's pharmaceutical and biotech industry.

The Polypeptide Group is a company that operates a contract development and manufacturing organization business for peptide drugs, with production facilities in Europe, the United States and India. Through this acquisition, Samsung Biologics will expand its business portfolio beyond antibody drugs to include peptides.
Samsung Biologics has already expanded its business beyond antibody drugs into mRNA and ADC. With peptides now added to the mix, the transition to a comprehensive CDMO capable of producing a wide range of modalities is expected to accelerate further.
The acquisition also carries geographic significance, as well as business expansion. By securing production facilities in the United States, Europe and India, the company can move beyond a production system centered on Songdo in South Korea and build a CDMO network spanning major global markets.
Expanding production capacity is another key pillar of the fundraising plan. Samsung Biologics intends to sequentially build Plants 6 through 8, following Plant 5, at the Songdo Second Bio Campus. Once all four plants, each with a capacity of 180,000 liters, are completed, global antibody drug production capacity will rise to 1.385 million liters.
The total scale of the second bio campus is 720,000 liters, making it a project to expand production capacity to one of the largest levels in the world.
The rights offering will support these large-scale facility investments and provide the funding needed for Samsung Biologics to simultaneously pursue expansion across the three pillars it has emphasized: production capacity, business portfolio and global hubs.
As competition in the global CDMO market intensifies, the company appears to be pursuing a strategy that expands production scale while also meeting customers' demand for diverse modalities and region-specific manufacturing.
Even as it moves ahead with major investment, the company has sought to minimize the burden on existing shareholders. The rights offering will be conducted as a rights issue followed by a public offering of any unsubscribed shares. Twenty percent of the newly issued shares will be mandatorily allocated to the employee stock ownership association, while the rest will be distributed to existing shareholders in proportion to their holdings.
Any unsubscribed shares after the existing shareholders' subscription period will be offered to the public, and the final unsubscribed shares will be fully underwritten by the joint lead managers. The capital increase ratio was also set at 4.904%, below 5%.
Another point of note is that Samsung Biologics' largest shareholder and related parties hold a 74.3% stake. By using a relatively low capital increase ratio and a rights issue structure, the company aims to secure large-scale investment funds while minimizing dilution for existing shareholders.
Through this rights offering, Samsung Biologics plans to go beyond simply expanding production capacity in the global CDMO market. It aims to build a portfolio spanning antibodies, mRNA, ADC and peptides, while also establishing a production network linking South Korea, the United States, Europe and India.
John Rim, CEO of Samsung Biologics, said, "We carried out the rights offering to lay the foundation for a leap forward as a global top-tier CDMO." He added, "We will do our utmost to steadily push ahead with the three-pronged expansion, including the Polypeptide Group acquisition and the expansion of the second bio campus, so that it can lead to higher corporate value."
[email protected] Kang Joong-mo Reporter