Cordlife

Cordlife: has proposed to acquire ASX-listed Cordlife Australia’s (CBB AU) cord blood and cord tissue banking businesses and assets in India, the Philippines, HK and Indonesia for an aggregate A$5.5m. This compares with the aggregate NTA of assets to be acquired of approx A$3.7m. The acq will enable Cordlife to enlarge its geographical footprint in Asia, and is inline with the group’s stated intentions in its Mar ’12 prospectus to use $16.6m (or 56% of net proceeds) to expand its business operations overseas. Mgt notes, the acquisition was achieved in a short time than anticipated. The operations in India, the Philippines and Indonesia have developed at astounding speed, indicative that these countries are fast growing mkts with their economies driven by a burgeoning middle class and rising affluence. More people are also becoming aware of the benefits of private cord blood and tissue banking for their children. Notes the 2007-11 CAGR of storage units for private cord blood banks in these 3 countries are at 38% for Indonesia, and 35% for Philippines and India. Cordlife trades at 22.7x P/E vs its SGX listed healthcare peers at 28-32x.