Biotechnologies at the service of IPO – Kommersant

The first IPO in 2023 took place on the Moscow Exchange. The Genetico company attracted almost 180 million rubles, the main buyers of the shares were private investors. Institutional investors are prevented from participating in such placements by low liquidity and overvaluation.

On April 25, Genetico (a subsidiary of the Institute of Human Stem Cells) held an IPO on the Moscow Exchange. The company placed 10 million shares at a price of 17.88 rubles. a piece. Market capitalization amounted to 1.48 billion rubles. Alor was the organizer of the placement, and IVA Partners was the co-organizer.

According to the issuer, the order book was oversubscribed by 2.5 times, and the total demand exceeded 439 million rubles. At the same time, all applications were satisfied in the amount of at least 30%, and applications up to 100 thousand rubles were completely satisfied, the company notes. According to the exchange, almost 3,000 deals were made in total. The funds raised during the IPO are planned to be used to develop genetic services in Russia, enter foreign markets, register our own test systems, and create gene therapy candidates for the treatment of orphan diseases.

Given the relatively small volume of placement, we expect its success, especially since the biotechnology sector, which is fashionable in the West, is still practically not represented on the Russian stock market, investment strategist of Arikacapital Sergey Suverov points out.

For comparison: at the end of last year, “Wush Holding” (Whoosh trademark) during the IPO was able to raise 2.1 billion rubles. with the planned 5 billion rubles. (see “Kommersant” dated December 15, 2022). At the same time, according to the stock exchange, following the results of trading on April 25, the value of Wush Holding shares exceeded 244 rubles, almost 32% higher than the placement price.

From the point of view of financial transparency, the company suits investors quite well, besides, it is a niche player in a promising, albeit a little risky for investments, industry, Mr. Suverov notes. Thus, the company published reports under RAS (for 2022) and under IFRS (for 2021). However, taking into account the fact that some companies are already beginning to disclose operational and financial indicators for the first quarter of 2023, it is impossible to assess the financial transparency of the company at a high level, Anna Mikhailova, an analyst at Ingosstrakh Investments Management Company, believes.

It is quite understandable that during the placement the company focused on retail investors who dominate the Russian market, says Vitaly Gromadin, asset manager at BCS Management Company. Since the beginning of the year, there has been a trend towards an increase in liquidity in the securities of the third tier (see “Kommersant” dated February 17). The share of private investors in the volume of trading in shares on the Moscow Exchange exceeds 80%.

The company’s valuation may raise questions, according to the results of 2022, the company’s revenue decreased by more than 20%, while the business remains unprofitable, says Mikhail Bespalov, an analyst at KSP Capital Asset Management.

According to Dmitry Alexandrov, Managing Director of Ivolga Capital, the smaller the size of the placement, the easier it is to place a paper with an overcapitalization, in addition, an extremely small amount of placement implies tangible risks of manipulation.

The general market situation, the geopolitical and macroeconomic situation and investors’ expectations of its change will play a key role in making decisions on the placement time for most companies, notes Anna Mikhailova. In February of this year, the head of the Supervisory Board of the Moscow Exchange, Sergei Shvetsov, did not rule out that this year the number of IPOs would be no less than in 2021 (seven). However, according to him, the capacity of conducting primary placements without the participation of institutional investors looks “a little implausible.”

Ksenia Kulikova