SillaJen granted six-month grace period to avoid delisting

SillaJen shareholders call for the trading of the biopharmaceutical company's stocks to be resumed at the Korea Exchange in Yeouido, Seoul, Jan. 18. Yonhap

By Yoon Ja-young

SillaJen got its chance to avoid being delisted from the stock market, as the bourse operator decided to grant it a six-month grace period to improve its situation.

The Korea Exchange (KRX) announced Friday that its Kosdaq market committee decided to give six more months to the biopharmaceutical company, which has been facing the risk of being delisted following alleged embezzlement and other malpractices by the firm's former and incumbent management.

SillaJen will have to submit a report within 15 business days from Aug. 18 on how it has executed its plan to improve the situation, which will need to be confirmed by experts.

Once it submits the report, the KRX will hold a Kosdaq market committee meeting within 20 business days to decide again whether the company should be delisted. Trading of the SillaJen's stocks will remain frozen.

SillaJen has been suspended from stock trading since May 2020, and the corporate evaluation committee of the bourse operator decided in November of the same year to give it one year to improve the situation. On Jan. 18, however, the corporate evaluation committee decided to delist it from the stock market.

Following the decision by the corporate evaluation committee, the biopharmaceutical company went through review by the Kosdaq market committee, which came up with Friday's decision.

SillaJen said it will make its best efforts to execute improvement plans, which include sustaining business operations by securing R&D personnel, for the normalization of its stock trading after the six-month period ends.

Some 165,680 small shareholders have stocks in SillaJen as of the end of 2020, accounting for a 92.6 percent total stake. The small shareholders have been calling for resumption of the stock trading.

Established in 2006, the biopharmaceutical company was engaged in developing cancer treatment and its market cap once surpassed 5 trillion won, ranking as the second-biggest firm in the tech-loaded Kosdaq market.

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