Yuhan said on the 10th that it plans to participate with about 10 billion won in ImmuneOncia Therapeutics, its anticancer drug research and development (R&D) subsidiary's 120 billion won rights offering subscription.
According to Yuhan, the board meeting to be held ahead of the earnings announcement tomorrow (on the 11th) will decide whether to participate in the rights offering and the size.
On the 6th, ImmuneOncia Therapeutics disclosed that it decided on a 120 billion won rights offering through a shareholder allocation with a general public offering of forfeited shares to raise operating funds. The size of the new share issuance is 16,832,000 shares, which amounts to about 23% of the number of shares outstanding before the capital increase.
Since then, small shareholders of ImmuneOncia Therapeutics have demanded, "Clearly state whether Yuhan will subscribe to 100% of the shares allocated."
With this rights offering, Yuhan is expected to be allocated 11,094,946 shares. Yuhan plans to subscribe to only about 13% (1.4 million shares) of these, or about 10 billion won in amount.
A Yuhan official said, "In addition to ImmuneOncia Therapeutics, we must also carry out our own pipeline research and development, and the size reflects responsible management as the largest shareholder," adding, "We will use our cash on hand to participate in the subscription."
As of the 6th, Yuhan's equity stake in ImmuneOncia Therapeutics is 65.92%. The increase in the number of shares due to the rights offering and the potential exercise of unexercised stock options in the future could act as factors lowering the stake, so the stake may fall from the previous level.
Yuhan explained that even after this rights offering, it will maintain a stake of more than 55%, so there is no problem with defending management control. The company said, "Yuhan's shares in ImmuneOncia Therapeutics are all locked up until 2028," adding, "Even if the stake falls due to this rights offering, there is no issue with the stability of management control."