‘A fighting chance’: Why Mirxes chose Hong Kong over Singapore for its IPO

In the days after Singapore-based Mirxes announced it had applied to Hong Kong’s stock exchange for an IPO, executives at the cancer diagnostics startup were flooded with questions about why it hadn’t opted to list on the local bourse.

Mirxes co-founder and CEO Zhou Lihan / Photo credit: Mirxes

Mirxes has a long history with the city-state’s establishment. It started as a spinoff company from the government-owned Agency for Science, Technology and Research (ASTAR). Its backers include EDBI, the investment arm of Singapore’s Economic Development Board.

Mirxes deliberated for a long time between the two stock exchanges, according to CEO Zhou Lihan. In the end, it boiled down to which ecosystem could better support the company’s next stage of growth. Hong Kong offered a better valuation and a more savvy investor pool.

“It’s not an exit event; it’s a fundraising event. The last thing you want is to say, let’s chiong (Singapore slang for ‘rush’) because of ambition,” says Zhou.

He has been asked why the company did not list locally at a lower valuation. “We’re in the business of investing long term, given our gestation period. If we raise at a lower valuation, that doesn’t give us enough ammunition. It actually defeats our entire purpose of fundraising,” Zhou told The Business Times without mentioning specific figures.

(This story was first published for paying subscribers of The Business Times. It was moderately edited to reflect Tech in Asia’s editorial guidelines.)

“If you under-resource a biotech company, it’s not much of a good thing. It’s either you resource it properly to give it a fighting chance, or you don’t do it,” he says.

Bankers in Hong Kong floated a valuation of up to US$1 billion for the company, sources told The Business Times in April.

Mirxes is still keen on being listed in Singapore, in part to support the local biotech scene, which has yet to find a solid success story.

Photo credit: Mirxes

It is considering a secondary listing by way of introduction, Zhou says. This form of listing on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) does not require selling new shares or raising funds.

Other companies that have taken this route include Chinese electric-vehicle maker Nio, which has a primary listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and the Philippines’ largest liquor company Emperador, which is listed in Manila.

IPO journey