Lonza Plans Secondary Listing on the Main Board of the Singapore Stock Exchange
Further strengthens Lonza’s position to develop opportunities in some of the fastest growing economies in the world.
Sep 16 2011 --- Lonza Group Ltd announced that it has submitted an application for a secondary listing by way of an introduction on the Main Board of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited. It is expected that the actual listing and first trading day will occur in the fourth quarter of 2011.
Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Lonza is one of the world's leading suppliers to the pharmaceutical, healthcare and life science industries and is one of the largest global contract manufacturers for the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industry with market leading positions in various segments, including mammalian cell culture, microbial biopharmaceuticals, organic small molecules, peptides, antibody drug conjugates and cell therapy. In the life science ingredients sector, it is a well established market participant with over 50% market share in a growing number of niche segments offering products used in nutrition and microbial control as well as for selected industrial purposes.
Lonza maintains 27 production and R&D facilities throughout Asia, Europe and the United States. In Asia, Lonza employs over 1,400 people (18% of the total Lonza workforce as at 31 December 2010) and generated sales of CHF 374 million in 2010 (14% of Lonza revenues). In total, Lonza has invested over CHF 1 billion over the last ten years in its Asian business. The Group set up its first facility in China in 1996 and has since expanded to seven manufacturing and R&D facilities in China, Singapore, India and Japan.
The proposed secondary listing is expected to make Lonza the first SIX Swiss-listed company to have a dual listing in Singapore with a market capitalization of CHF 2,852 million (approximately S$ 4,058 million as at 15 September 2011).
Lonza’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Stefan Borgas, said, “We already have a strong presence across a large footprint in Asia and this secondary listing signals Lonza’s long-term commitment to the region, further strengthening our position to tap opportunities in the fastest growing economies in the world. This strategic move to list in Singapore enables us to have a more visible presence in Asia, in addition to allowing us to tap the strong capital flows in Asia, while enlarging and broadening our current investor base in the region. Through our highly competitive business model, we are well positioned to benefit from the market growth in Asia.”
In view of the increasing opportunities in the fast growing economies of Asia, Lonza continues to invest in expanding its operations there. In the second quarter of this year, Lonza opened its new mammalian cell culture plant in Singapore and expects to open its new L-carnitine and Niacinamide facilities in China later this year and in 2012 respectively. In June this year Lonza had announced an additional CHF 10 million investment in Singapore for the further expansion of its biopharmaceutical development services platform, adding another 1,858 square metres of modern laboratory space and associated equipment, supporting cell line construction, upstream and downstream process development, and a broad range of analytical services. The facility is expected to come on-line in the first half of 2012.
This new service platform and our cutting-edge Cell Therapy manufacturing facility (targeted to be operational in Singapore by 2012) are expected to integrate seamlessly with Lonza’s biological manufacturing facility in Singapore, thereby creating a full-service biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing site.
For the financial year ended December 31, 2010 (“FY2010”), Lonza reported sales of CHF 2,680 million, up 3.3% (at constant exchange rates) from FY2009. Net profit rose to CHF 284 million, up 10.4% (at constant exchange rates) from FY2009.
UBS AG, Singapore Branch has been appointed to act as sole issue manager for the introduction.
