Celltrion completes merger with Celltrion Healthcare

Celltrion founder and chairman Seo Jung-jin [CELLTRION]

Celltrion has finally merged with Celltrion Healthcare, three years after its original plan was announced. Celltrion announced that its board had approved the merger on Thursday.

Each share of Celltrion Healthcare will be swapped for 0.4492620 shares of Celltrion, which will be the surviving entity. The new shares will be issued on Jan. 12.

Celltrion is a biosimilar firm and is currently Korea's 11th largest company by market capitalization. Celltrion Healthcare handles its overseas distribution.

The new entity is, in turn, slated to merge with Celltrion Pharm, currently Celltrion's domestic distributor, next year. Celltrion Holdings will be the largest shareholder of the resulting entity with a 21.5 percent share.

Celltrion founder and chairman Seo Jung-jin holds a 98.1 percent stake in Celltrion Holdings.

“Celltrion was able to secure massive funds through the merger and will invest them in our new future growth engines like biosimilars, new drug development and mergers and acquisitions,” Celltrion said in a statement.

Celltrion, aims to log 12 trillion won ($9 billion) in annual revenue by 2030. Celltrion currently has six biosimilar products, and aims to increase that number to 22 by 2030.

BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]