Ex-remisier-cum-billionaire Peter Lim Eng Hock is a man with the Midas touch as his ventures into various businesses have brought him great wealth.Not much has been written about him in the past, but of late the Singaporean has attracted media attention, mostly notably for his recent attempt to acquire the troubled Premier League football club Liverpool for £360mil (S$750mil).
Lim’s recent move was the purchase of a 29.6% stake in TMC Life Sciences Bhd – said to be acquired from a collective 25% stake from Datuk Dr Colin Lee Soon Soo and his brother Soon Swee, in two off-market trades at 52 sen a share for a total of RM77.8mil.
The acquisition has made Lim the second largest shareholder of TMC Life Sciences after Berjaya Corp Bhd (BCorp), with a 31.66% interest.
Will we be seeing a battle of giants for the healthcare company or a team-up?
Either way investors are enjoying the tussle for power between two billionaires (Tan Sri Vincent Tan of BCorp being the other) with the capacity to finance expansion of the healthcare company, knowing they could potentially be the beneficiaries.
Not surprisingly the share price of TMC Life Sciences touched an all-time high for the year at 58.1 sen on Nov 1 before closing slightly lower at 56.5 sen yesterday.
Analysts don’t really know what Lim’s next move will be or his reason for investing more in the healthcare industry.
But it certainly makes interesting story when two tycoons, or heavyweights, are both keen on having control of the same company.
A Singaporean analyst said the success of the healthcare company would depend on if they share the same vision and growth strategy, moving forward. “If they join forces they could be a formidable force,” he said.
Some analysts are of the opinion that Lim’s acquisition of a stake in TMC Life Sciences is not a good move as the healthcare company lacks economies of scale against established healthcare providers such as KPJ Healthcare, Sunway Medical Centre and Sime Darby Medical Centre, besides being still a loss-making company.
Others say the healthcare industry is a sunshine industry that will ultimately pay dividend to investors because of the growing healthcare demand in the region and the aging population.
A local healthcare analyst said the healthcare industry was set to get a boost with big investors like Lim willing to back the industry.
“It’s definitely good for current shareholders as well as for the future development of the healthcare industry with the big boys willing to support the industry,” he said.
On the acquisition price, the analyst said that at 52 sen, TMC Life Sciences would be valued at RM312.9mil and Lim would be acquiring the Lee brothers’ stake at a price-to-book ratio of 3.1 times, based on the latest net assets per share of 16.67 sen as at March 31.
“It would appear to be slightly over-priced, but if it turns out to be a good investment, it justifies the acquisition,” he said.
But, going by the company’s current performance, the analyst said it was not exactly a hot stock.
For the financial year ended Dec 31, 2009, TMC Life Sciences posted a net loss of RM8.48mil on revenue of RM48.5mil.
The company continued to be loss-making in the six months ended June 30, posting a net loss of RM5.34mil on revenue of RM26.65mil.
The loss was mainly due to TMC Life Sciences stake in Tropicana Medical Centre in Kota Damansara, which was still underutilised.
But, to be fair, the healthcare sector is not new to Lim as TMC Life Sciences is the second healthcare provider he had invested in.
On June 7 this year, Lim emerged as a substantial shareholder in Healthway Medical after increasing his stake from 4.96% to 6.03% for S$2.1mil (RM4.9mil).
Recently, he also invested about US$100mil in Global Logistic Properties, a giant provider of warehouse facilities in China and Japan, which is majority-owned by the Singapore sovereign wealth fund.
One thing for sure, Lim’s foray into the healthcare business in a bigger way may not get the nod from some people, including analysts, but the maverick has time and again proven that he had invested correctly and reaped the rewards. - by Danny Yap
No comments:
Post a Comment