Singapore listed Cordlife Group Ltd surfaced as a substantial shareholder in StemLife, buying 49.3 million shares or a 19.9% stake in the publicly traded Malaysian stem cell therapy and life- sciences company.
Interestingly enough the announcements to the local bourse indicates that the sellers are the founders off StemLife Sharon Low Su-Shing and Christina Lim Oi Wah.
According to the company’s latest annual report for FY2012 Low has 11.2% in StemLife, while Lim has 11.19% equity interest in the company.
It is not known how much Cordlife Group paid for the controlling block of StemLife, as the only detail offered was that the deal was done on September 3.
However the market seems to be positive on the entry of Cordlife. StemLife was up five sen to 37.5 sen at 3.50pm giving the company a market capitalisation of about RM92.8 million.
It is n not clear if Low the managing director and Lim the executive director will step down after selling out of the company.
Christina Lim Oi Wah (left) and Sharon Low Su-Shing
Perhaps the writing was already on the wall. In end May this year Low took 12-month sabbatical leave, leaving Lim in charge of the company. This was quite a surprise as Low has been the face of the company since its floatation exercise in October 2006.
It is also noteworthy that StemLife has billionaire businessman Vincent Tan Chee Yioun as a 12.12% shareholder in the company. Other substantial shareholders include Capital Group International Inc with 8.9% and Emerging Markets Growth Fund controlling 5% equity interest in Stemlife.
For its six months ended June this year, StemLife posted a net profit of RM1.5 million from RM8.5 million in revenue. Earnings per share for the six months was 0.62 sen.
StemLife also has a 40% stake in ThaiStemLife Co Ltd.
As for Cordlife Group, Bloomberg has the company focusing on cord blood banking services, including the collection, processing, testing preservation and storage of umbilical cord blood at birth.
A check on Cordlife’s annual report for FY2012 however reveals that as at mid-September last year, Cordlife Group Ltd’s largest shareholder was China Stem Cells (East) Co Ltd with 10.47%. Other substantial shareholders included City Challenge Global Ltd controlling with 9.4%, Coop International Ltd with 8.8% and Wells Spring Pte Ltd with 7.22%
For FY2012, Cordlife posted net profits of S$6.9 million from US$28.8 million in revenue.
Cordlife has a market capitalisation in excess of S$300 million.
