[비즈한국] Yuhan Corporation000100 is showing a hesitant stance toward a large-scale fundraising effort by its subsidiary, ImmuneOncia299030, drawing attention to the reasons behind it. Despite being the majority shareholder with over 50% stake, it is reported that Yuhan will participate in less than 10% of its allotted shares, leading the market to express concern regarding Yuhan's commitment to responsible management and the recent significant cooling of investment sentiment.
On the 6th, ImmuneOncia decided to conduct a 120 billion won rights offering to secure operating funds, including for R&D. Having listed on the KOSDAQ last May, the company is attempting to raise funds equivalent to nearly 20% of its market capitalization (650 billion won) less than a year after listing. Market attention is focused on the actions of Yuhan Corporation, the largest shareholder with a 65.92% stake.
Based on its shareholding ratio, Yuhan would be expected to invest approximately 79 billion won in this rights offering. However, Yuhan's position is that it is difficult to invest the full amount. As the domestic pharmaceutical company most actively pursuing an open innovation strategy—such as making equity investments in promising biotech firms—it appears that Yuhan has judged that concentrating resources on a specific subsidiary could disrupt the balance of its overall investment portfolio. Yuhan is understood to have conducted a total of 75 strategic investments worth a cumulative 784.7 billion won up to the third quarter of last year.
ImmuneOncia also explained via a disclosure on its website that Yuhan is considering participating in the amount of approximately 10 billion won. This represents about 8.3% of the total rights offering. It is reported that institutional investors will participate in the remaining portion allotted to Yuhan (unsubscribed shares) by purchasing new share subscription rights, meaning there should be no issues with ImmuneOncia securing the funds.
Some view this as a litmus test for the extent of Yuhan's "selective and focused" commitment to its subsidiary ImmuneOncia, as well as an indicator of the reality of its changed investment strategy, especially since Yuhan previously indicated it would revise its open innovation strategy, which had focused on small-scale equity investments.
At the keynote session of BioPlus-Interphex Korea 2023 (BIX 2023) held at COEX in Seoul in July 2023, Kim Yeol-hong, President of R&D at Yuhan Corporation, said, "We have made many small-scale strategic investments, but we are troubled by the lack of ways to recoup the capital," adding, "We will continue to collaborate, but we intend to rule out strategic investments." He further added, "We have internally concluded to pursue a strategy where we make large-scale investments of 20-40 billion won and become the largest shareholder once a partner company is nurtured."
Some in the industry express disappointment, suggesting that Yuhan is showing a passive attitude toward the responsible management of its subsidiary. They argue that Yuhan, the top domestic pharmaceutical company with annual revenue exceeding 2 trillion won and 1.1989 trillion won in current assets (including 288 billion won in cash equivalents), participating in less than 10% of its allocation during a large-scale capital infusion for its subsidiary could be interpreted as turning a blind eye to its responsibilities as a shareholder.
Looking at Yuhan's recent investments in other corporations, the company appears cautious in selecting its targets. Excluding the 30 billion won invested in ProGen in 2023 to secure majority shareholder status, the amount of new investments in biotech companies over the past three years has decreased. Including the ProGen investment in 2023, Yuhan invested 46.7 billion won in equity acquisitions of other corporations, but this dropped to 7.2 billion won in 2024 and 6 billion won in 2025, failing to exceed 10 billion won annually. Because of this, some analyze that this decision is not merely about portfolio diversification, but a result of overall dampened investment sentiment.
A Yuhan official stated, "It is difficult to disclose all investment companies and investment amounts due to strategy," and added, "We are striving not to be negligent in responsible management, such as by purchasing shares when ImmuneOncia's joint venture partner faced difficulties in the past."
ImmuneOncia is an immuno-oncology development company established in 2016 as a 51:49 joint venture between Yuhan Corporation and the U.S. biotech firm Sorrento Therapeutics. When Sorrento Therapeutics entered bankruptcy proceedings due to financial difficulties in 2023, Yuhan acquired all of Sorrento's shares for approximately $23 million (39 billion won). ImmuneOncia listed on the KOSDAQ market last May through a special technology assessment listing process.