Kirkland & Ellis and Haiwen & Partners are assisting the Edding Group Company to go public in Hong Kong via a merger with Hong Kong-listed Genor Biopharma in the first backdoor listing on the HKEX involving a biotech enterprise that debuted through the Chapter 18A IPO regime.
Genor Biopharma will acquire Edding through a reverse takeover, selling its shares to the latter’s shareholders. Once the merger is completed, Edding’s shareholders will hold 77.48% shares in the merged company. Genor Biopharma proposes to change its name to Edding Genor Group.
Partners Lu Mengyu and Joey Chau led Kirkland & Ellis’ team advising Edding, with partners Ashlee Wu and Leo Zhou assisting them.
Haiwen’s partners Philip Chan and Jackson Tang acted as Genor Biopharma’s counsel.
Genor Biopharma was listed on the HKEX main board in 2020 via the Chapter 18A listing regime, which allows biotechnology companies with no revenue or profit to go public. The drugmaker, registered in the Cayman Islands, develops medication to treat breast cancer, lung cancer and gastrointestinal tumours.
Edding is a pharmaceutical company that reported RMB2.3 billion (USD325.6 million) in revenue last year. It applied for a listing on the HKEX three times, but all attempts were unsuccessful.
