BlackRock Acquires 691.6 Billion Won Worth of Alteogen Shares at an Average Price of 256,688 Won

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, invested 691.6 billion won to acquire a 5.03% stake in Alteogen, according to filings.

BlackRock Fund Advisors filed a report on large shareholdings with the Financial Supervisory Service’s electronic disclosure system on the 7th, stating that it held 2,694,448 Alteogen shares. The reporting date was July 31, and the stated purpose was simple investment. After purchasing an additional 24,273 shares on the market in one day, up from 2,670,175 shares (4.98%) on July 30, BlackRock became subject to the obligation to report holdings of 5% or more.

Thirteen entities divided 691.6 billion won in purchases

There was not a single purchasing entity. BlackRock Fund Advisors, the reporting entity, and 12 specially related parties—13 entities in total—held the shares through funds and client accounts managed separately by each entity.

The entity with the largest holding was BlackRock Fund Advisors, with 1,524,675 shares (2.84%). It was followed by BlackRock Institutional Trust, with 486,925 shares (0.91%), and BlackRock Advisors UK, with 431,760 shares (0.81%). The remaining holdings were divided among entities in the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Singapore, the Netherlands, Australia and Taiwan, each holding several thousand to tens of thousands of shares.

The filing stated that no individual fund or client held 5% or more independently. The company explained that the holdings below 5% were not all acquired on the same day, but had been purchased over several earlier transactions.

Average purchase price of 256,688 won; some purchases were in the 180,000-won range

Recalculating the weighted-average acquisition price listed for each entity in the detailed transaction history, weighted by the number of shares held, produces an average of 256,688 won. The total acquisition cost for all 2,694,448 shares was approximately 691.6 billion won.

There was a wide disparity among the entities. The Singapore entity had the lowest average price, at 185,851 won, followed by the Canadian entity at 211,972 won and the Dutch entity at 208,921 won. By contrast, the North Asia entity acquired shares at 416,011 won, while Investment Management LLC paid 339,447 won. This indicates that the purchases were spread over an extended period.

The purchase price on July 31, which triggered the reporting obligation, ranged from 303,330 to 308,500 won. The additional purchases that day totaled approximately 7.4 billion won.

After accounting for the ex-rights adjustment from the bonus issue, unrealized gain reaches 376.8 billion won

Alteogen implemented an ex-rights adjustment for a bonus issue on Aug. 5. The reference price announced by the exchange was 267,000 won. Under the 30% bonus issue, which allocates 0.3 shares per share, 16,068,790 new shares will be listed on Aug. 26.

After reflecting the ex-rights effect, BlackRock’s effective average purchase price falls to approximately 197,452 won. Compared with the Aug. 7 closing price of 305,000 won, this is 54.5% higher. Assuming that BlackRock’s holdings increase to 3,502,782 shares, including the bonus shares, their value would be 1.0684 trillion won, resulting in an unrealized gain of 376.8 billion won.

Earnings and a third technology export shortly after the purchases

There were four days between BlackRock’s crossing of the 5% threshold and Alteogen’s disclosure schedule.

On Aug. 5, Alteogen disclosed that it had entered into an exclusive licensing agreement for ALT-B4, a recombinant human hyaluronidase based on its Hybrozyme platform. The maximum contract value, including upfront and milestone payments, is $365 million, or approximately 521.9 billion won. Sales royalties will be paid separately. Disclosure of the counterparty, the development product and the upfront payment amount was deferred because of confidentiality provisions. This was the company’s third technology transfer of the year, following agreements with Tesaro and Biogen.

Two days later, on Aug. 7, the company released preliminary second-quarter results. Consolidated revenue was 68.9 billion won, up 269.5% from the same period a year earlier, while operating profit was 34.2 billion won, marking a return to profitability. For the first half of the year, cumulative revenue was 140.5 billion won, operating profit was 73.5 billion won and net profit was 101.3 billion won.

“The first half of this year is significant because, beyond the technology-export achievements of the Hybrozyme platform, we began generating revenue from sales of commercialized products,” said Jeon Tae-yeon, CEO of Alteogen. Royalties are flowing in as sales increase for the subcutaneous formulation of Keytruda developed by U.S. pharmaceutical company MSD using ALT-B4.

How BlackRock previously invested in Korean biotechs

BlackRock’s domestic biotech investments have primarily involved entering shortly before the release of phase 3 clinical trial results.

Helixmith is a representative example. BlackRock Fund Advisors’ average acquisition price listed in a March 2020 disclosure was 181,428 won, while other entities accumulated holdings at prices above 200,000 won. This was when expectations for the success of phase 3 trials of the gene therapy Engensis were at their peak. Assuming an average purchase price of 190,000 won, the investment was estimated to exceed 200 billion won.

The outcome was the opposite. After controversy arose over the mixing of clinical data, the share price collapsed, and BlackRock sold approximately 3% of its stake between March and August 2020. The sale price was about one-third of the purchase price.

SillaJen followed the same pattern. BlackRock Fund Advisors’ average acquisition price was 69,567 won, while another entity paid around 90,000 won. After phase 3 trials of the oncolytic virus Pexa-Vec were halted in August 2019, the share price fell into the 10,000-won range. In the case of HLB, when it first disclosed a 5.07% stake in June 2020, its average purchase price was 108,451 won per share, and its total investment was 206 billion won.

The big gains came outside biotech

BlackRock’s domestic gains have been concentrated in semiconductors and financial companies.

According to a portfolio analysis compiled last September, BlackRock’s return on domestic investments was 67.9%. BlackRock increased its stake in SK hynix to 5% when the share price was in the 86,000-won range in May 2018. Assuming it retained those shares, the return was estimated at 319%. The return was 223% for KB Financial Group and 89.3% for Samsung Electronics.

At the time, BlackRock concentrated on buying undervalued semiconductor stocks as South Korean markets were shaken by the U.S.-China trade dispute. In biotech, it bet on clinical success, while in semiconductors and financials, it acquired earnings-generating stocks whose prices had fallen.

Returning to pharmaceuticals and biotech this year

Since the beginning of 2026, BlackRock has successively increased its stakes in South Korean pharmaceutical and biotech companies. After becoming HLB’s second-largest shareholder with a 5.01% stake in February, it increased its holding to 6.05% in June and to 7.15% (9,525,885 shares) as of July 30. It continued buying shares on the market even after the company received a complete response letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Yuhan Corp. was newly reported on June 8, with 4,039,408 shares, or a 5.07% stake.

“BlackRock likely increased its investments in South Korea because, after conducting detailed analyses, it determined that they would provide substantial benefits in terms of returns,” said Seo Ji-yong, a professor in the Department of Business Administration at Sangmyung University. The BlackRock Investment Institute downgraded its view on emerging-market equities from “overweight” to “neutral” in its second-half outlook report on June 30.

Decision to remain on KOSDAQ and remaining variables

On July 16, Alteogen disclosed that it was temporarily postponing its request for a preliminary review for a transfer listing to the main KOSPI market. The decision came seven months after an extraordinary shareholders meeting on Dec. 8, 2025, approved a conditional delisting and transfer listing.

The company cited changes in the capital market environment and the government’s and Korea Exchange’s policies to revitalize the KOSDAQ market as reasons for the postponement. It added that the plan had not been fully withdrawn and that it would reconsider whether and when to proceed.

There have been nine disclosures related to Alteogen over the past 30 days. They were posted in sequence: the decision on the bonus issue and a correction to the filing, closure of the shareholder registry, the ex-rights adjustment, suspension of trading, postponement of the transfer listing, the technology transfer, preliminary second-quarter results and BlackRock’s large-shareholding report.

When 16,068,790 new shares are listed on Aug. 26, the number of common shares will increase to 69,631,425. The next change-in-holdings report will show whether BlackRock maintains its stake in the 5% range or, as it did with Helixmith, sells its holdings.