Celltrion to merge three of its business units and pursue M&A this year

Celltrion biopharmaceutical company is combining three of its business units as its founder, Seo Jung Jin, returns to the management. He said earlier this week that they would also pursue mergers and acquisition (M&A) opportunities while working on consolidating the three divisions to help fortify the operations of the company.

Moreover, the Celltrion Group is looking to acquire the biopharma solutions business of Baxter International Inc. As per Pulse News, the company is planning to merge its three units - Celltrion Inc., Celltrion Pharm Inc., and Celltrion Healthcare Co. The target date for the completion of this plan is by the end of this year, and this was shared by Seo Jung Jin himself at the recent shareholders’ meeting.

Seo first established Celltrion Inc. in 2002, and he has been leading the company until he stepped down in March 2021. He has assumed an honorary position since then, and now he is back in the company after a 2-year hiatus and will hold a managerial role.

The Celltrion founder was appointed as co-chairman of the board of the three businesses that will be combined to form one unit. He will be in this position for two years.

“We may make our move on the potential takeover of Baxter’s biopharma unit at the end of the year as we hold sufficient cash for now,” Seo stated during the conference regarding the merger of the three Celltrion firms. “We will file a report to the financial regulator in July.”

“The merger will be realized at the end of the year at the earliest, though we have to see how the financial situation goes,” he added via a separate statement after the meeting on Tuesday.

Korea Joongang Daily reported that Seo already revealed the plans for the integration of Celltrion’s three listed companies in early 2020. However, he left the company the following year. Thus, upon his return, the merger was one of the things that he would like to fulfill.