Samsung Biologics Receives Approval for IPO in South Korea

Samsung Biologics Co., the drug-manufacturing arm of the South Korean conglomerate, received approval to list its shares in South Korea, allowing it to move ahead with an initial public offering that would help it expand in a lucrative pharmaceutical market.

The listing of the business, which manufactures complex drugs called biologics for drug companies, offers the South Korean conglomerate a new area of growth to offset pressures in its smartphone operations. Samsung Electronics Co., the maker of Galaxy mobile phones, faces rising competition from new models of Apple Inc.’s iPhone. In recent weeks it began recalling millions of its Note 7 phones because of faulty batteries.