CARSGEN-B (02171) has announced a proposed share placement. On May 15, 2026 (before the trading session), the company, the seller Yijie Biotechnology Holdings Limited, and the joint placing agents entered into a placing agreement. Under this agreement, the seller agreed to sell, and the joint placing agents agreed to act as the seller's agents, using their best efforts to procure no fewer than six placees to subscribe for up to 23.7 million placing shares at a placing price of HK$19.84 per share. Concurrently, the company and the seller entered into a subscription agreement, under which the seller conditionally agreed to subscribe, and the company conditionally agreed to allot and issue subscription shares to the seller at a price equal to the placing price of HK$19.84 per placing share. The number of subscription shares will be identical to the number of placing shares actually placed by the joint placing agents under the placing agreement.
The placing price of HK$19.84 per share represents a discount of approximately 9.49% compared to the closing price of HK$21.92 per share on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on the last trading day. Assuming the full placement of the 23.7 million existing shares and the allotment and issuance of the subscription shares, and assuming no change in the company's issued share capital from the date of this announcement to the completion of the subscription, the placing shares represent approximately 4.15% of the company's existing issued share capital (excluding treasury shares) as of the announcement date and approximately 3.99% of the company's issued share capital (excluding treasury shares) as enlarged by the allotment and issuance of the subscription shares.
The gross proceeds from the subscription are expected to be approximately HK$470 million, with estimated net proceeds (after deducting all related fees, costs, and expenses) of approximately HK$462 million. Consequently, the estimated net subscription price per share is approximately HK$19.49. The company intends to use the net proceeds from the subscription for the following purposes: approximately 70% will fund research and development expenses for global (including China) clinical development of its innovative drugs to accelerate pipeline development and expansion of indications, such as Investigational New Drug (IND) applications and clinical trials for several allogeneic CAR-T cell products and in vivo CAR-T cell products; approximately 15% will be allocated for equipment and facility expenses related to global R&D (including new process development) and production; and the remaining approximately 15% will serve as working capital and for other general corporate purposes, including the establishment and operational expenses of a direct sales and commercialization team to support the group's ongoing operations and strategic plans.
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