Kohjin Bio

コージンバイオ

TSE Growth ・ Ticker 177A ・ Listed

Updated Apr 25, 2024

Result on listing day

+6.8%

Offer price

1,900 yen

First traded price

2,030 yen

Selling 100 shares at the first traded price would have produced a gain of 13,000 yen, before fees and tax. 100 shares is the minimum trading unit in Japan.

Application period (book building): 2024-04-09 — 2024-04-15
Lottery result: To be announced
Listing date: 2024-04-25
Cash needed to apply for one lot (100 shares): about 190,000 yen
Offering size (at the offer price): 1.9 billion yen ・ 977,500 shares
Market capitalisation at listing: 9.5 billion yen
Lock-up: Not translated — this is the wording from the Japanese offering documents, kept verbatim so it matches what your broker shows: 代表取締役ほか主要株主に90日間のロックアップが付されています(一部には90日間または公開価格の1.5倍以上での解除条項付き)。
Company website: https://kohjin-bio.jp/

Brokers you can apply through

You can only enter this lottery through a broker underwriting it. The lead underwriter is Nomura Securities, which receives the largest allocation.

野村證券 SMBC日興証券みずほ証券 SBI証券むさし証券

Broker pages are in Japanese. A comparison in English is on the brokers page.

What stands out

Founded in 1981, it has been making media for growing cells and microbes for more than 40 years
It owns cell processing facilities (CPC) for regenerative medicine and obtained a manufacturing licence for its Hiroshima site in July 2024
It is planning a new plant in Omura, Nagasaki Prefecture for January 2028, and has a joint venture with Ajinomoto and a tie-up with Corning of the United States

What could go wrong

Demand for COVID-19 antigen test kits has disappeared, and revenue from the microbiology segment fell from 1.78 billion yen in the year to March 2025 to 1.42 billion yen in the year to March 2026
Operating profit fell from 991 million yen to 341 million yen in the year to March 2026, and the company forecasts a further decline for the year to March 2027, to revenue of 4.72 billion yen and operating profit of 137 million yen
The lock-up at listing ran for only 90 days, and some of it could be released once the share price reached 1.5 times the offer price

About the company

A biotechnology company founded in 1981 that develops and makes the culture media used to grow cells and microbes, and processes cells under contract for regenerative medicine.

How it makes money

The company has three segments. The largest, tissue culture, sells serum-free and other media used in regenerative medicine and immunotherapy research to hospitals, universities, research institutes and drugmakers, and brought in 2.54 billion yen in the year to March 2026. The microbiology segment sells media and test kits for detecting pathogens, used by food and cosmetics makers and by medical institutions, and brought in 1.42 billion yen. The cell processing segment cultures and processes cells under contract from medical institutions at the company's own cell processing facilities (CPC), and brought in 970 million yen.

Where growth is meant to come from

The company plans to expand contract manufacturing for regenerative medicine, and in July 2024 obtained a manufacturing licence for its cell processing facility in Hiroshima. To add capacity and strengthen business continuity, it is planning a new plant in Omura, Nagasaki Prefecture, scheduled to start up in January 2028. It also says it will expand overseas, mainly in Asia, through its joint venture with Ajinomoto, Ajinomoto Kohjin Bio, and a tie-up with Corning of the United States, a major maker of culture vessels.

Read about this company in Japanese →

Figures are taken from the offering documents and public sources, and are checked against two independent sources before publication. Nothing here is investment advice. Shares can and do open below their offer price.