Mirae Asset Financial Group said Thursday it has sold Nasdaq-listed German biotechnology firm BioNTech for $37 million, earning a hefty profit from its previous investment of $15 million.

The German company is known to hold one of the three mRNA-based substance that is currently a candidate for COVID-19 vaccines.

Three months after making its deal, the biotech firm went public on Nasdaq through the American Depository Receipt -- the way of making hard-to-trade foreign stocks available to investors in the US.

After fulfilling the mandatory safeguarding deposit period at the end of this month, Mirae Asset will realize nearly a 2.5 times of profit from its previous investment.

The BioNTech deal is the first retrieval from Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund, which was launched in June 2018. Its overseas affiliate firms also invested together for the investment.

Mirae Asset has been a pioneering financial player here in terms of overseas alternative investments. Last year, the group’s asset managing arm earned 170 billion won ($138.5 million) in profit from selling Taunusanlage 8, a prime office building located in Germany’s Frankfurt.

By Jie Ye-eun (yeeun@heraldcorp.com)