ONE of China’s best-known purveyors of herbal medicines today will announce plans to raise £40 million in London via a listing on the junior stock market.

Hutchison China MediTech (Chi-Med), part of the Hutchison Whampoa conglomerate that also owns 3, the mobile phone network, is hoping to tap into the City’s renewed appetite for biotech firms.

The company will use proceeds from the float to develop treatments, derived from traditional chinese medical practices, to help cancer sufferers and patients with weak immune systems.

Chi-Med intends to use the lising on the Alternative Investment Market to exploit the growing demand in the West for alternative medicines.

The World Health Organisation estimates that more than half of Europeans have tried an alternative therapy such as traditional Chinese medicine and analysts estimate that the market could be worth as much as $60 billion (£34.4 billion).

The company’s intention to list is timely. The biotech sector is in better health than at any time since the collapse of the high-tech boom: of the ten companies to float in London since the start of the year, nine have seen share prices soar, while shares in the tenth, Aqua Bounty, are just ½p under water.

Chi-Med also owns the Sen chain of health food shops and has a 68 per cent stake in a venture that makes a range of products that claim to help to improve the memories of students studying for exams.

Explore Health

• Expert Advice

• Health Features

• Mental Health

• Alternative Medicine

• Child Health

• Health Club