Kuala Lumpur, May 4 – StemLife Bhd, a stem cell bank founded in 2001 and licensed by the Ministry of Health Malaysia under the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services (PHFS) Act 1998 is no longer a counter on Bursa Malaysia stock exchange. StemLife, the pioneer in offering cord blood banking became a listed entity on the MESDAQ (now known as ACE) market in 2006, and has since been in the forefront of medical breakthroughs pertaining to cord blood stem cell and cord lining.
In view of its growth potential in Malaysia, after two rounds of takeover exercises, Cordlife Group Limited (CGL) – which is listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX) – accumulated more than 90% shareholding in StemLife Berhad by February 2017, resulting it to be taken off the ACE Market listing.
StemLife is now 99% owned by CGL and part of the largest cord blood banking group in Asia region with presence in 7 countries, 140 cities and more than 180,000 cord blood units stored.
The company will continue to be known as StemLife Berhad and has announced the appointment of a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in Malaysia, Yap Eng Gee.
Yap has many years of experience in the healthcare industry. She was formerly the Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of TMC Life Sciences Berhad, an investment holding company, primarily operating a multi-disciplinary tertiary care medical centre (Tropicana Medical Centre).
Prior to that, she also served as CFO to Pantai Holdings Berhad, which has a network of hospitals marketed under two brand names – Pantai Hospital and Gleneagles Hospital.
Yap takes over the helm from Sophian Abdul Rahman who assumed the position of Director, Business Development and Mergers & Acquisition of at the head office of CGL effective 1st April, 2017.
With more than 15 years of proven expertise in stem cell banking in Malaysia, StemLife has to date banked in more than 60,000 cord blood stem cells and recorded 15 successful cord blood transplants which involved the treatment for Thalassaemia, Cerebral Palsy, Brain Injury and Leukemia.
Yap said, “For the next level of growth in Malaysia, we are looking at delving further into mother and baby care business, by developing and offering new products and services with the reliability and unrivalled care that we have been known for. We will also be looking at expanding our coverage in areas within the country where – in the past – we may not have had a strong enough focus on. There is still so much potential for our business to grow in Malaysia.”
She added that while there have been key improvements in the awareness on the benefits of saving baby’s cord blood and cord lining in general, the company, moving forward will continue to invest in the educational and promotional activities such as pre-natal workshops organized with partner hospitals, on ground exhibitions as well as participation in related seminars and forums.
“Our intent is to continuously increase the awareness on its benefits and to reach as many parents as possible as cord blood and cord lining has become more and more important to treat blood related diseases and other potential medical conditions,” Yap said.
“We can and will further leverage on the experience, expertise and resources of the CGL Group and Head Office in Singapore” she further added.
Said Dr. Wong Chiang Yin, Executive Director and Group CEO, CGL, “We are happy the process of delisting StemLife Berhad is now completed. We can now focus on bringing StemLife to the next level of growth. Let us assure our customers that our level of service will continue to be of the highest quality and our CGL Group’s commitment to StemLife remains high and steadfast.”