The Ngiam family, long associated with IPC Corporation, has taken a liking for the healthcare business. Bernard Ngiam, 55, to own a 4.76% stake in AsiaMedic. NextInsight photo.Three Ngiam brothers -- Bernard, Alfred and Benjamin -- have agreed to purchase 40 m new shares of AsiaMedic at 5.5 cents apiece for a total of S$2.2 million.Their respective stakes via the proposed private placement would be 4.76%. 4.76% and 0.73%, respectively. Benjamin Ngiam is MD of IPC Corp while his two brothers are executive directors. The trio are in their 50s. Their much better known brother, Patrick, 61, is the long-time Chairman and CEO of IPC, which started life in the 1980s and grew to become a leading computer company in Singapore. |
When the PC industry competition intensified, IPC suffered and scouted for a new business. It is currently a property developer and hospitality group, which has little to do with AsiaMedic, a one-stop health screening and diagnostic healthcare provider located in Orchard Road.
AsiaMedic itself may be experiencing the beginnings of a transformation with the purchase, in June 2015, of a 28.15% stake by China's Luye Medicals Group.
Tan Wang Cheow has stepped down from being non-executive chairman of AsiaMedic after selling his shares to Luye Medicals Group in June 2015. He continues to be executive chairman of Food Empire Holdings.
NextInsight file photo.Luye bought the stake from Grandiflora Pte. Ltd. and from former AsiaMedic non-executive chairman Tan Wang Cheow.
Notably, the transacted price was $17.2 million based on 18 cents a share, a significant premium to the then traded price of around 6.7 cents and to last week's market price of 6.1 cents.
(Luye is some big player in China as is reflected in its ability to pay AUD938 million for Australia's third largest private hospital operator, Healthe Care Australia. See report here)
Along with the proposed placement of new AsiaMedic shares to the Ngiam brothers is also a proposed placement to two non-executive directors of AsiaMedic.
Subject to shareholders' approval at an EGM, the two directors -- Tan Soo Kiat and Kenneth Koh -- intends to purchase an aggregate of 11.5 million shares at 5.5 cents apiece.
These two directors were appointed to the board right after Luye Medicals completed its purchase of the 28.15% stake.
The two directors' proposed purchase can be viewed as an expression of confidence in the future of AsiaMedic and, specifically, what Luye might do to enhance the company's future.
For more details of the share placement, see AsiaMedic's announcement here.
