WuXi AppTec Said to File for $1 Billion-Plus Hong Kong Offering

(Bloomberg) -- WuXi AppTec Co., the Chinese contract medical researcher, has submitted an application for a Hong Kong share sale, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The offering could raise more than $1 billion, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. The Shanghai-listed shares of WuXi AppTec have nearly quadrupled since they began trading in May, giving the company a $13 billion market value.

WuXi AppTec, which previously traded on the New York Stock Exchange, was taken private in 2015 in a $3.3 billion deal by founder Ge Li and a group of investors including Ally Bridge Group and Hillhouse Capital. The company raised 2.25 billion yuan ($328 million) in its initial public offering in Shanghai earlier this year, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

A Hong Kong-based external representative for WuXi AppTec declined to comment.

Wuxi Biologics Cayman Inc., which was spun off from the medical researcher, has risen nearly 250 percent since listing in Hong Kong in June last year.

First-time share sales in the city have raised $29 billion so far this year, 76 percent more than during all of last year, the data show.

To contact the reporters on this story: Crystal Tse in Hong Kong at ctse44@bloomberg.net;Vinicy Chan in Hong Kong at vchan91@bloomberg.net;Manuel Baigorri in Hong Kong at mbaigorri@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Scent at bscent@bloomberg.net, Timothy Sifert, Amy Thomson

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