7x EV / EBITDA! Edicon (09860) "bottom-feeding" global cancer CRO giant Crownbio biotechnology valuation advantage attracts market attention.

Recently, there have been frequent capital acquisitions in the CRO track. Previously, Hillhouse Capital acquired WuXi AppTec's clinical CRO business for 2.8 billion yuan, and third-party independent medical testing (ICL) increased its acquisition of Crown Bioscience. On November 13th, ADICON HOLDINGS (09860) announced that it plans to acquire 100% of the issued shares of the world's leading oncology specialty CRO, Crown Bioscience, for a base price of approximately 204 million US dollars, and is expected to be completed by mid-2026. It is understood that Crown Bioscience, acquired by ADICON HOLDINGS, was established in 2006 and is the world's largest oncology specialized CRO. Its core strengths include having a globally leading patient-derived xenograft (PDX) model library and organoid technology, as well as over 5000 high-quality in vivo/in vitro tumor models. With the trend of digitalization in pharmaceutical research and development, Crown Bioscience has also built a "data + AI" technology loop. It has not only launched innovative digital tools such as SynAI and CrownLink, but also continues to explore the application of artificial intelligence in key areas such as drug discovery and efficacy prediction. It is worth noting that the EV/EBITDA multiple for this transaction is only around 7 times, compared to the PE ratios of over 50 times for companies in the pre-clinical CRO sector such as Pharmaron and GemPharmatech, showing a significant valuation advantage. This marks ADICON HOLDINGS' formal transformation from the ICL field to the dual track of "clinical testing + drug development services", injecting new variables into the global pharmaceutical research and development services industry landscape. Industrial believes that this acquisition will inject new growth momentum into ADICON. The stable cash flow generated by the company's independent clinical laboratory (ICL) business will complement the high-profit margin contract research organization (CRO) services of Crown Bioscience, jointly building a more balanced and scalable business model. It is estimated that ADICON's net profit attributable to shareholders for 2025-2027 will be 5.6 million, 6.7 million, and 9.4 million yuan, with year-on-year growth rates of 19.79%, 18.59%, and 41.47%, respectively, and for the first time covering the company, giving it a "hold" rating.