Latham Advises the Underwriter in Suzhou Basecare Medical’s HK$1.824 Billion Hong Kong IPO

Latham & Watkins advised the underwriters in the HK$1.824 billion initial public offering and 144A/Regulation S offering of Suzhou Basecare Medical Corporation Limited (Basecare) on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (HKEX). Basecare is the first third-generation in-vitro fertilization (IVF) genetic testing company based on next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies listed on HKEX. The IPO comes after a very successful 2020, favorable regulation of industry, and massive growing demand for IVF services in mainland China. 

Basecare’s global offering consists of 66,667,000 H shares (subject to the over-allotment option) sold at an offer price of HK$27.36 per H share. CLSA Capital Markets Limited acted as the sole sponsor for the offering, while the other joint global coordinators included CLSA Limited, Citigroup Global Markets Asia Limited, and China International Capital Corporation Hong Kong Securities Limited. 

Founded in 2010, Basecare focuses on the assisted reproductive sector, such as pre-implantation genetic screening and diagnosis, non-invasive prenatal DNA testing, and chromosome abnormalities testing. Basecare’s PGT-A kit is the first and so far only third-generation IVF genetic test kit approved by China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), and also the first company in China that has NGS testing product lines covering the whole reproduction cycle. 

The Latham team was led by Hong Kong partners Cathy Yeung, Allen Wang, and Terris Tang, with counsels Mandy Wong, Wei Wei, associates George Zheng, Carson Wong, foreign legal consultant Jessica Wu in Hong Kong, and consultant Jasmine Hu in Shanghai. Advice on FDA regulatory matters was provided by associate Chad Jennings in Washington D.C.; and on tax matters by partner Samuel Weiner in Los Angeles.