This article was published on July 2, 2025, at 5:11 p.m. on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove site.
Although cumulative technology exports have reached 2 trillion won, Aribio, a developer of dementia treatments struggling to enter the KOSDAQ market, has confirmed its intention to acquire the listed biotech firm Aptamer Sciences. Aptamer Sciences did not deny this. An official from Aptamer Sciences noted, “We are considering ways to attract investment from major domestic pharmaceutical companies or biotechs to collaborate on new drug development and other initiatives.”
Aribio’s push to acquire Aptamer Sciences can be seen as a Plan B strategy related to its listing efforts. To be precise, it is Plan C. Aribio aimed for a direct entry into the KOSDAQ market through a technology exception but has faced multiple failures. As a result, it pursued a merger with Solux, a KOSDAQ-listed lighting company, to seek a backdoor listing; however, this has also been delayed for nearly a year.
On the 2nd, according to the investment banking (IB) industry, Aribio recently submitted a letter of intent to acquire Aptamer Sciences. According to a 60-page document obtained by our publication, Aribio plans to pursue a merger after acquiring this company. It is also known that Aribio has reached out to new drug development company S and biotech company J for investment purposes.
Aptamer Sciences, a platform corporation for aptamer-based diagnostics and treatments, entered the KOSDAQ market in September 2020. Last year, its revenue was approximately 700 million won, an increase of 216%, but still at a minimal level. The operating loss stood at 6.9 billion won, continuing the deficit. The net loss recorded was 8.6 billion won. Since Aptamer Sciences was listed through a technology exception, the criteria for delisting based on revenue will apply starting this year. If it fails to achieve a significant revenue increase this year, it could be designated as a managed stock next year, posing a delisting risk.
The industry analyzes that Aribio is looking for alternative candidates due to difficulties in merging with Solux. Solux also announced on June 26 that it would postpone the schedule for an extraordinary general meeting that was to address the merger approval with Aribio as a major matter. The schedule for the extraordinary general meeting will be changed from the original date of July 25 to September 4.
Originally, Solux attempted to hold a shareholders' meeting with the same content around six months ago, on September 27, 2024. However, it postponed the schedule ten times after that. Starting from the fourth postponement, it did not specify a new date for the meeting, and only by the eighth postponement was the date for the shareholders' meeting finalized.
The background of the delay in the merger of these corporations can be attributed to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) requesting corrections to the merger-related securities registration statement six times. Considering that even large corporations usually receive one or two correction requests, this is a significant number. The FSS has stated its position that “the content that could hinder reasonable investment judgments by investors or significantly mislead investors was not properly documented.”
Although the exact reasons for the FSS not permitting the merger between Solux and Aribio are not known, there are talks in the industry that suggest the FSS may consider Solux’s governance structure as non-transparent. Additionally, Solux has a market capitalization of 220 billion won, significantly larger than Aptamer Sciences (30 billion won). This brings into question whether changing to a different shell company for a backdoor listing could be more beneficial for Aribio. However, since Solux is the largest shareholder of Aribio, it can still remain as the largest shareholder of the merged entity.
Meanwhile, in May 2023, Jeong Jae-jun, the representative of Aribio, purchased 1 million shares from Kim Bok-deok, then representative of Solux, for 30 billion won. He subsequently became the new largest shareholder of Solux by participating in a 30 billion won capital increase and issuance of bonds with warrants. Afterward, he sold his Aribio shares worth 40 billion won to Solux continuously, making Solux the largest shareholder of Aribio.
Aribio’s cumulative technology exports to Samjin Pharm in Korea (2023), a Chinese pharmaceutical company (2024), and Arcera in the UAE (2025) approach 2 trillion won. This has led some to argue that the FSS is overly blocking the listing of promising biotech companies.