Logo of GI Innovation (GI Innovation)

Local drug developer GI Innovation has submitted a preliminary application for listing on the country’s secondary tech-heavy bourse Kosdaq with its eyes set on going public in the second half of the year, the company said Thursday.

GI Innovation’s initial public offering will be carried out under Kosdaq’s special listing track, known as the “unicorn special listing.”

The Korea Exchange established the unicorn special listing process in April last year to simplify the technological evaluation process for companies with excellent market evaluation.

For companies expected to have market capitalization of 500 billion won ($404 million) or more once they are listed on Kosdaq, the regulator gives them the eligibility to apply for a preliminary review as long as they obtain a grade of A from at least one of the evaluation agencies designated by the Korea Exchange.

According to GI Innovation, the company received a grade A from its technological evaluation in November.

Since the drug developer’s establishment in 2017, the company has raised a total of 250 billion won in investments from major firms such as SK and Yuhan. GI Innovation also made two licensing out contracts worth 2.3 trillion won with both of its cancer immunotherapy candidate GI-101 and allergy treatment candidate GI-301 in preclinical trials.

“Currently, GI-101 and GI-301 of GI Innovation’s main pipelines are cruising well. For GI Innovation’s successful IPO and growth into a global company, we plan to keep our focus on 3S (Science, Strategy, Speed),” said Rhee Byung-geon, CEO of GI Innovation.

NH Investment & Securities and Hana Financial Investment are the representative underwriters while Samsung Securities are taking part as a co-underwriter.

By Kan Hyeong-woo (hwkan@heraldcorp.com)