Chinese securities regulators, citing a lack of required documentation, are not proceeding with a review of BGI’s IPO application, just short of a year from when the genomics company filed to get on the Chi-Next board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
The regulatory decision regarding the IPO, which had a $3 billion valuation, as reported by China Money Network, is a big blow to what’s been a three-year quest.
In Aug. 2013, FierceBiotech reported on the DNA sequencing service provider’s IPO interest citing a Forbes article that noted IPOs in biotech were on the upswing. Since then BGI has been busy attracting substantial funding, from a $205 million round in 2012 to an investment by Chinese insurance company Taikang Life for a 20% stake in 2015, notes China Money Network.
In 2014 it became the first company to be certified under China’s food safety rules regarding genetic testing, notes China Money Network.
This year BGI, a global leader in foundational DNA sequencing regarding genetic traits, launched a partnership in May with UW Medicine regarding precision medicine and population genetics. That partnership followed a corporate leadership shuffle in 2015 as CEO Wang Jun left and started an AI healthcare company called iCarbonX. The startup, as FierceBiotech reported earlier this year, has a valuation of $1 billion.