Within half a year, three times of discounted private placements overlapped with the lifting of the major shareholder's ban on selling shares, leading to a single-day plummet of about 60% in the stock price of TRANSTHERA-B (02617).

On June 23, TRANSTHERA-B(02617) celebrated the second phase of unlocking one year after its listing. According to the shareholder holding information as of December 31, 2025, the controlling shareholder and initial public offering investors of the company collectively held approximately 273 million shares. The unlocking this time involved 119 million shares, accounting for 29.19% of the total share capital, with a unlocking market value as high as HK$3.324 billion. Although unlocking does not necessarily mean selling off, it simply opens the gate for reducing holdings, the specific reduction situation depends on the shareholder type and motivation. However, the results show that on June 23, the stock price of TRANSTHERA-B plummeted significantly after the opening, with a drop of 46.28% within one minute and nearly 60% in half an hour. Was the stock price crash foreshadowed? Looking at the market performance in the past two years, since reaching a historical high of HK$679.5 in intraday trading on September 16 last year, the stock price of TRANSTHERA-B has been on a significant decline. In the market logic of "high-level oscillation, attracting long positions to distribute", the selling volume through the Shenzhen Stock Connect reached 0.6650%, with a high selling volume of 1.182 million shares. The Shenzhen Stock Connect funds resolutely and without considering costs sold off the chips, leading to a loss of support for the stock price of TRANSTHERA-B and a free fall. Subsequently, although TRANSTHERA-B experienced a significant stock price rebound from October 16 to November 6 last year, with a one-day increase of 46.34% on October 16. But in terms of the long and short forces, it can be seen that the main long forces, mainly composed of international speculative funds such as BNP Paribas, HSBC, and Merrill Lynch, simply wanted to "take a share" in the dramatic long and short market at that time. Their buying and pushing actions triggered a new round of selling by the Shenzhen Stock Connect funds. After that, the stock price of TRANSTHERA-B continued to decline, with a K-line pattern mainly consisting of small Yin and Yang candles falling from the upper BOLL line to the lower line, and the corresponding stock price also dropped from around HK$120 at the beginning of the year to HK$27.92 at the close on June 22. Although on June 23, before the sharp drop, TRANSTHERA-B had been mainly experiencing small declines on the plate, there were still signs of a different market sentiment before the sharp drop. Data shows that on June 4 this year, TRANSTHERA-B witnessed a positioning anomaly. The involved positioning market value was HK$338 million, accounting for only 3.08%, and the company's shareholders deposited 9.6109 million shares with Huatai Hong Kong, increasing their shareholding to 20.67%. Unlike paperless issuance in A-share listed companies, Hong Kong still retains the physical holding method of stocks. Since stocks can only be traded after being transferred to CCASS, the occurrence of positioning does not mean that shareholders are selling off, but it can also be considered as shareholders preparing for sale. In addition, on June 22, in the brokerage trading data of TRANSTHERA-B, the Shanghai Stock Connect once again appeared as the net seller chief for the first time in nearly 60 days. Three rounds of "flash rights issue" erode market confidence inside and outside? As mentioned earlier, unlocking does not mean selling off, it simply opens the gate for reducing holdings, and the specific reduction situation depends on shareholder type and motivation. For example, during the second quarter of last year, the unlocking wave in the Hong Kong stock market did not suppress the market, mainly because high-quality corporate performance exceeded expectations, attracting continuous purchases from index funds, southbound funds, and foreign funds, completely covering the potential selling of unlocked shares. Typically, controlling shareholders, industrial capital, and long-term sovereign wealth funds usually have longer-term holding purposes and lower intentions to reduce holdings. Therefore, a shrinkage in overall transaction volume in the market before unlocking usually indicates small market disagreements and most investors are waiting for a clear trend. However, the significant drop in trading volume after the unlocking of TRANSTHERA-B this time indicates that the confidence of the holders in the market has been shattered, which may be related to the frequent arrangements of high discount placements by the company on the eve of the unlocking. It was reported that on May 27 this year, TRANSTHERA-B announced a placement of 3.836 million new shares to at least six placement agents at a discount of approximately 18% per share at HK$40.83 per share, raising approximately HK$152 million. This was the third placement of the year, after two placements completed in January and April. Moreover, all three placements were discounted placements, with a total net fundraising of HK$624 million. It is worth mentioning that, according to the company's disclosure, as of the end of last year, TRANSTHERA-B had raised funds of HK$1.19 billion from the IPO. In this context, the company still carried out three rounds of discounted placements, raising more than HK$600 million in funding. In terms of the intended use of the funds received, the company emphasized that the funds were mainly used for the development of its core products and pipeline. However, the research and development expenditures in 2024 and 2025 were HK$244 million and HK$247 million respectively, while with cash on hand of HK$415 million at the end of 2025, the choice to conduct intensive discount placements of over HK$600 million within six months has left many investors puzzled. Furthermore, the three rounds of placements took place during a downturn in the stock price of TRANSTHERA-B, and the discount rates for the three rounds of placements were 17.98%, 18.00%, and 18.01% respectively. The gradually expanding discount rate has continued to "trap" funds entering the market, eroding the confidence of holders in the market, and also suppressing the willingness of new funds to enter, leading to a lack of external support. In the past two months, the daily trading volume of the company's stock has been below 1 million shares.