Growth Enterprise Market-listed pharmaceutical company SIIC Medical Science and Technology (SIIC MedTech) plans to make more acquisitions soon after posting a slight profit rise for the third quarter.
Net profit for the three months to September rose 4.4 per cent to HK$23.65 million, largely due to strong sales from its Chinese medicine subsidiary, Hangzhou Qingchunbao.
Profit for the first nine months rose three-fold to HK$223 million year on year, largely inflated by an exceptional gain from the February listing of a subsidiary Shanghai Jahwa United on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
'Our acquisitions will be in two areas. The first area will be for retail sales networks, including Chinese medicine and Western medicine retail sales networks. The second is in production, especially a company capable of producing Chinese medicine,' said chairman Zhuo Fumin.
While Mr Zhuo would not reveal any details about the acquisitions, he said one of them would hopefully be made before the end of this year.
SIIC MedTech, owned by the Shanghai municipal government, does not plan to raise any funds for the acquisitions as it already has enough money, said company executives. SIIC MedTech is sitting on net cash reserves of more than HK$400 million, according to the interim results.
Third quarter earnings per share were 3.8 HK cents, slightly higher than last year's 3.7 HKcents. SIIC MedTech will not pay a quarterly dividend, in order to maintain sufficient capital for the acquisitions.
