Broncus, a US-based medical equipment developer backed by corporate investors Baidu and Intuitive Surgical, floated on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Friday in a HK$1.67bn ($215m) initial public offering.
The offering entailed the company issuing almost 89.4 million shares priced at the upper end of the IPO’s HK$17.20 to $HK$18.70 range, giving it a market capitalisation of roughly HK$10bn ($1.3bn). The shares opened and closed at HK$18.00 and HK$15.00 respectively on the first day of trading.
Founded in China in 1997 as Broncus Technologies, Broncus is developing medical devices focusing on interventional procedures for lung diseases. The company had filed for an $86.3m IPO on the Nasdaq Global Market in 2007 before cancelling the plans the year after.
The company booked $32.6m and $48.8m in net losses in 2019 and 2020 respectively, and its revenue fell from $8.1m to $3.3m over the same period. The IPO proceeds will go to conducting further research and development and expanding its business.
Non-executive director Zi Zhenjun was the largest shareholder before the offering with a 29.9% stake, followed by vehicles for Qiming Venture Partners with 21.2% and Intuitive Surgical with 6.1%.
Broncus had last raised funding in January this year when it closed a series D round of undisclosed size led by FountainVest Partners that also featured Exome Asset Management, Summer Capital and Valliance Capital.
Baidu Capital, a vehicle for internet group Baidu, backed a series C round of similarly undisclosed size three months before led by Lake Bleu Capital and backed by Ascendum Capital, CNCB Capital, Qiming Venture Partners and DCP Capital.
The company had collected $15m in series A funding in 2018 from backers including surgical robot producer Intuitive Surgical, and Qiming was later identified as an existing investor.
