After releasing the takeover plan of China Cord Blood Corporation (hereinafter referred to as CO Group) and Shandong Cord Blood Bank early this year, Nanjing Cenbest is to further expand its cord blood business. On 1 July, the company announced that it intended to acquire a 20% stake of Cordlife Group Limited, a   listed company in Singapore with 428.8 million yuan in cash (SGD 86.6229 million) to expand cord blood business in Southeast Asia.

On 30 June, Nanjing Cenbest convened the 45th meeting of the 7th board of directors, wherein it approved the motion of taking over 20% equity of Singapore Cordlife. According to the announcement, Nanjing Cenbest was to acquire a total of 51.87 million shares of Cordlife held by Wells Spring Pte Ltd, Providence Investment Pte Ltd and Coop International Pte Ltd in cash at a price of SGD 1.67 per share, with the transaction price totalling SGD 86.6229 million. If converted at the exchange rate of SGD to RMB 4.9502, the purchasing price is about 8.27 yuan per share, totalling the purchasing price to 428.8 million yuan.

It is learned that Cordlife is a SGX-listed company with more than 15 years of cord blood bank operations experience and network of private cord blood banks in Asia-Pacific regions. Currently, the company has comprehensive management and cold chain storage devices in operation in Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India and the Philippines. Among them, the handling and storage devices of Singapore, Hong Kong and India have accessed AABB (the USA Association of Blood Banks) certification. From 2013 to 2015, Cordlife Group Limited has registered the net profit of SGD 13.48 million, SGD 30.52 million, and SGD 32.46 million respectively, about RMB 66.7287 million, RMB 151.0801 million and RMB 160.6835 million.

Earlier this year, Nanjing Cenbest released the plan to acquire CO Group and Shandong Cord Blood Bank. The company will have 4 cord blood banking licences out of 7 in China after the acquisition. For the proposed acquisition of Cordlife, Nanjing Cenbest revealed that if the deal could ultimately be reached, it would help the company further develop its core blood business in the Southeast Asian market and promote the integration of medical assets of the listed companies. It is one of the main steps to accelerate the two-main-business development strategy of “modern commerce + health and senior-care”.

According to the research report of CITIC, since 2011, Cordlife has maintained high growth through its expansion in Hong Kong, Indonesia, India and the Philippines and other regions. In 2011-2015 fiscal years, its CAGR was up to 22.4%, and PATMI 39.9%.

“The stem cell industry chain extension and senior-care service promotion is the highlight of Nanjing Cenbest’s long-term market value.” Considering the acquisition of 20% stake of Cordlife Group, CITIC has raised Nanjing Cenbest’s net profit forecast to 9.5/11.1/13.1 billion yuan in 2016-2018, and the basic earnings per share to 0.59/0.69/0.81 yuan.