The news that Watson Biologics transferred a portion of its equity in Shanghai Zerun, a cervical cancer vaccine company, for 1.141 billion yuan caused an uproar in the pharmaceutical investment circle over the weekend.
On the morning of December 6, Yunnan Watson Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (300142, Watson Bio) responded to the news about the reasons for investors’ concerns about the sale and the price of the sale. Big problem.
Regarding the transfer of Zerun Biotech’s equity, Watson Biotech stated that this is a strategic choice based on the company’s actual business and future development.
Watson Biotech stated that the transfer of equity is for Shanghai Zerun to introduce strategic investors. While obtaining development funds, it also uses the power of partners for Zerun’s HPV, etc. Project product clinical trials strengthen professional capacity building, introduce more professionals, and improve company management performance, so that projects can develop faster and better, and be approved for listing as soon as possible in the future to create value as soon as possible.
Watson Biotech explained that although the relative share is less after the transfer of the controlling rights, as the second largest shareholder, the absolute value of future earnings may not be higher than that of the original holding. less. In addition, according to the agreement of this transaction, Watson also locked in the sales rights for HPV products within five years after the listing, and this part of the core interests can still be effectively protected.
In addition, Watson Bio emphasizes that under the background of the continuous development of the current new crown epidemic, the company will use the development of the new crown vaccine as an opportunity to focus on energy and resources and quickly Promote the clinical research process of mRNA new crown vaccine and adenovirus new crown vaccine and the construction of production workshops, and strive to build a certain scale of new crown vaccine production base in the first half of next year. On the other hand, Watson Biotechnology has increased its efforts to deploy mRNA and adenovirus technology platforms, and develop more and better vaccines, laying a solid foundation for the company’s sustainable development.
At the same time, Watson Bio has been actively expanding the overseas market of seven vaccine products, including the 13-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide conjugate vaccine, to strive for more overseas market share.
Watson Biotech said: “We need to make a reasonable allocation of limited resources under the guidance of the company’s development strategy.“
For the controversial transfer equity price, Watson Bio emphasizes that it mainly refers to the equivalent consideration of the recent transactions of other shareholders of Shanghai Zerun, and also considers the strategy introduced this time. Investors, in addition to providing capitalIn addition to the financial guarantee, it can also empower Zerun’s development, and its transferred shareholding ratio is only 1.4% higher than Watson’s shareholding ratio after the transfer of shares. Watson continues to retain its position as a majority shareholder. In addition, through this transaction, Watson also recovered nearly 1.2 billion yuan of investment funds and obtained more than 1.1 billion yuan of investment income.
Watson Biotech said in response: “We are very pleased that everyone is optimistic about Watson and Shanghai Zerun. We look forward to Zerun creating more value for shareholders in the future. At the same time, we also firmly believe that Watson will create more value for investors in the future.”
On December 4, Yunnan Watson Biotechnology Co., Ltd. issued an announcement saying , The 16th meeting of the fourth board of directors of the company deliberated and approved the “Proposal on Signing the Agreement on Equity Transfer and Capital Increase of Shanghai Zerun Biotechnology Co., Ltd.”, and the company intends to apply to Zibo Yunze Venture Capital Partnership (Limited Partnership) (abbreviated as ” “Zibo Yunze”), Yongxiu Guanyou Zhaode Equity Investment Fund Center (Limited Partnership) (“Yongxiu Guanyou”) transferred its subsidiary Shanghai Zerun Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (“Shanghai Zerun”) total The registered capital of RMB 293 million corresponds to 32.60% of the equity, and the total equity transfer price is 1.141 billion.
According to the announcement, if the transfer is completed, the company will directly hold the equity corresponding to Shanghai Zerun’s registered capital of RMB 230 million, reducing the direct shareholding ratio to 28.50%. Shanghai Zerun will no longer be a holding subsidiary of Watson Bio.
According to the information on Watson Biotech’s official website, the company was founded in 2001 and headquartered in Kunming, Yunnan. It was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange’s Growth Enterprise Market in November 2010 and is listed in Yuxi, Yunnan. High-tech Zone and Jiangsu Taizhou China Medical City each have a modern vaccine production base and a pilot plant, with a marketing network covering 30 provinces and cities in China and more than 2,000 counties.
Shanghai Zerun was established in 2003 and is committed to the development of new recombinant human vaccines. The main products include divalent cervical cancer vaccines, nine-valent cervical cancer vaccines, and recombinant vaccines. Hand, foot and mouth disease vaccine, etc. At the end of 2012, Watson Biotech held Shanghai Zerun at a cost of 591 million yuan.