Nanox makes Nasdaq IPO

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Nanox makes Nasdaq IPO

A digital X-ray machine from Nanox. [SK TELECOM]

A digital X-ray machine from Nanox. [SK TELECOM]

 
Nanox, a medical imaging company partly owned by SK Telecom, made an initial public offering (IPO) on the U.S. Nasdaq on Friday.

 
Nanox is an Israel-based start-up that is in the process of commercializing a digital X-ray machine that aims to reduce the costs of medical imaging systems and improve functions.
 
SK Telecom is the second-largest shareholder of the start-up. It has invested $23 million over two periods in June 2019 and June 2020. It has acquired 2,607,466 shares in total, or 5.8 percent of the firm.  
 
People affiliated with Nanox, including CEO Ran Poliakine, are the largest shareholders. Other investors include Fuji Film and Foxconn.
 
“This company made an IPO as an emerging growth company after getting its technologies recognized,” the telecom company said in a statement Sunday. “SK Telecom discovered Nanox last year while trying to find ways to collaborate with global semiconductor start-ups, and have decided to invest in the company after verifying its technologies numerous times.”
 
Plants that will manufacture a type of semiconductor that is key for Nanox’s digital X-ray machines will be established in Korea.  
Nanox’s digital X-ray generator uses semiconductors to generate X-rays instead of the filament in existing analog X-ray generators. The technology allows it to produce a clearer image up to 30 times faster than conventional X-ray generators. It could also lower patients' exposure to radioactivity, according to SK Telecom.
 
The company added that it plans to partner with Nanox on projects using its 5G and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.  
 
The company said that combining digital X-ray generators with 5G in an ambulance could help the medical staff in the van and those in the hospital exchange X-ray images in real time.
 
“Nanox technologies and their potential are highly valued abroad, and therefore, [it] made an unprecedented initial public offering on Nasdaq,” SK Telecom wrote in a press release. “[We] plan to create a revolution with Nanox in the post-Covid-19 era by combining next-generation medical technologies, 5G and AI.”
 
On its first trading day Friday, Nanox shares closed at $21.7, up 20.56 percent from the $18 IPO price.
 
BY JIN MIN-JI   [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]
 

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