[SINGAPORE] Cord-blood bank on Thursday (Aug 14) posted a net loss of S$4.6 million for its first half ended Jun 30, trimming its losses from S$12.4 million in the year-ago period.
In tandem, its loss per share narrowed to S$0.018, from S$0.0482 previously.
Revenue surged 108.8 per cent to S$19.2 million, from S$9.2 million in H1 2024, mainly due to the full resumption of operations in Singapore on Jan 14, after almost nine months of suspension of its operations, the group said.
In late 2023, Ministry of Health officials found that Cordlife had been storing cord-blood samples in its tanks at suboptimal temperatures, which rendered thousands of units unusable for stem-cell transplants. The cord-blood bank’s operations were suspended as a result.
For H1 2025, cost of sales rose 5.8 per cent to S$8.2 million from S$7.8 million.
Cordlife did not declare a dividend for the six-month period, unchanged from the year before.
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Also on Thursday, it announced the appointment of Wu Yifei as group chief financial officer (CFO).
The 46-year-old will replace Thet Hnin Yi, who resigned “to focus on personal priorities”. Thet, who became CFO in January 2023, will step down from the role and all other appointments with Cordlife and its subsidiaries on Nov 14, after serving a three-month notice period.
Wu comes from biotechnology company PharmaBlock Sciences (Nanjing), where she was group CFO from June 2021 to June 2025. In her new role at Cordlife, she will be responsible for the overall management of the company’s financials.
Client claims swell to S$8.7 million
On Jul 31, Cordlife received a letter of demand from persons who identified as its clients, seeking claims totalling more than S$250,000. The letter concerned the company’s lapses in handling the storage of cord-blood units, and it alleged that Cordlife had breached its service agreement contract with its clients.
This brought the aggregate sum of claims received from customers to around S$8.7 million as at Thursday. This includes refund requests and claims that are pending or threatened.
Cordlife said it cannot determine the impact of the claims on its performance for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2025.
“However, should the company be ultimately required to settle all the claims made by multiple clients in FY2025, this will likely result in a negative impact on the financial position of the group for FY2025,” it added.
It also said it is seeking legal advice regarding its claims, as well as “actively monitoring and attending to the claims”. It added that it would take the “necessary steps” to engage claimants.
“Cautiously optimistic” amid resumed Singapore operations
Regarding its outlook, Cordlife said it is “cautiously optimistic” that its financial performance would improve, driven by the resumption of its Singapore operations, efforts at addressing issues, as well as the long-term growth potential of the cord-blood banking industry.
Chen Xiaoling, group executive director and group chief executive officer, said: “We continue to see new business opportunities and have been investing in our sales and marketing efforts to restore customer confidence and to grow our sales pipeline back to pre-incident levels.”
For now, it intends to focus on growing its customer base across the countries in which it operates.
“The management team is also carefully reviewing the company’s cost structures with a view to improving margins and returning to profitability,” Chen said.
The group said it has initiated several corporate recovery strategies. These include increasing marketing efforts by participating in baby fairs and expanding outreach through parenting networks to raise awareness about cord-blood banking.
It held a series of town halls between Jun 23 and 25 to engage its affected customers, and has been engaging the medical community on its efforts at rectifying and improving its operational procedures.
Shares of Cordlife finished Thursday flat at S$0.20.
