ShareHope Medicine Co Ltd (盛弘醫藥) on Sunday announced that chairman Yang Hong-jen (楊弘仁) would be leaving the company to lead a healthcare investment and management platform under global investment firm KKR & Co in China.
Yang has been tapped to serve as chief operating officer of Sino Care Group, a newly created unit that has plans to invest US$1 billion over the next five years to fund the acquisition, build-out and consolidation of private hospitals in China.
The announcement has boosted investor confidence in ShareHope’s prospects for long-term expansion in China, with the company’s stock surging 10 percent, the daily maximum, to close at NT$31.9 in Taipei trading yesterday.
Yang’s new appointment would not result in immediate and tangible progress for ShareHope in the Chinese market, a company official said yesterday.
However, the company does not rule out future collaboration with the New York-based private equity giant, said the official, who declined to be named.
Yang said in a statement that he would leverage ShareHope’s resources and KKR’s affiliate hospitals to help speed up KKR’s expansion in China.
His departure would not affect the Taiwanese company, he added.
Yang said he hopes to build a cross-border healthcare and medical service provider that could join in exporting Taiwanese management expertise.
“It is time to realize the goal of bringing Taiwan’s healthcare sector to global markets,” Yang said.
In 2006, KKR successfully bid US$33 billion to acquire US-based hospital owner HCA and later held an initial public offering, relisting the company on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011, KKR Greater China chief executive officer Paul Yang (楊文鈞) said.
KKR hopes to replicate in China the success that Yang Hong-jen has had in managing US hospitals and ShareHope, Paul Yang said.
Shortly after the founding of SinoCare Group late last month, the company completed a US$170 million deal to acquire a majority stake in three hospitals owned by China’s HeTian Hospital Management Co (和天醫院集團), he added.
Yang Hong-jen is to double as president of HeTian Hospital Management with the aim of meeting neglected healthcare needs in third and fourth-tier cities in China, he said in a statement.
ShareHope, which provides hospital procurement and logistics services, reported that sales in August increased 26.07 percent annually to NT$290 million (US$9.5 million), boosted by its acquisition in July of a pharmacy chain with 87 stores.
The company’s accumulated sales in the first eight months of the year increased 15.23 percent annually to NT$1.98 billion.
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