HONG KONG: Sinopharm Holdings, the largest distributor of pharmaceuticals on the mainland, is to list in Hong Kong in September now that the company has been granted approval by the securities regulators, sources said yesterday.

Pending the approval of the Hong Kong bourse operator (HKEx), the Sinopharm IPO aims to raise up to 7 billion yuan, with UBS AG, CICC and Morgan Stanley participating as joint underwriters.

Sinopharm Holdings is 51 percent owned by China National Pharmaceutical Group and 49 percent by Hong Kong pharmaceutical and steel products distributor Fosun International. It is also a major shareholder of China National Medicines and Shenzhen Accord Pharmaceutical.

China National Pharmaceutical Group Corp, the largest pharmaceutical group on the mainland, engages in pharmaceutical research, production and trading and is in charge of national centralized reserves and the allocation and supply of emergency and relief medicines.

The central government is accelerating its reform in the healthcare system, with 850 billion yuan to be ploughed into the system, of which Sinopharm is considered the largest beneficiary.

China National Pharmaceutical Group Corp planned to list its medicine production unit in the fourth quarter of 2008, which was postponed because of the financial crisis.

Unlike most red chips in the Hong Kong bourse, Sinopharm is not allowed to list as A-shares in the Shanghai Securities Exchange, according to relevant regulations on the mainland.

(HK Edition 07/30/2009 page4)