Cordlife Group Limited
Annual Report 2016
12
Financial and
Operations Review
MARKET UPDATES
SINGAPORE
MALAYSIA
HONG KONG
As educational awareness has a huge impact on market penetration, our team in Singapore (“Cordlife Singapore”)
launched an integrated brand campaign to engage prospective clients through traditional and digital media platforms.
In May 2016, the team also invited leading experts in the stem cell research and regenerative medicine eld from the
United States to speak at a continuing medical education conference organised in partnership with the Obstetrical
and Gynaecological Society, Singapore. The aim of the conference was to keep doctors in Singapore and around Asia
abreast on the latest advancements in this rapidly expanding eld of regenerative medicine.
In December 2015, the team successfully achieved accreditation by FACT-Netcord, a gold standard for cord blood
banking. This places them amongst only six cord blood banks in the world to achieve accreditations by both FACT-
Netcord and AABB.
In line with the Group’s efforts to achieve economies of scope, Cordlife Singapore started to actively promote their
new diagnostics services including non-invasive prenatal testing (“NIPT”) and eye screening service (“Eyescreen”) in
FY2016. These services were marketed through their existing marketing channels as well as to existing cord blood and
cord lining banking clients.
During the year under review, the Group increased its interest in Stemlife Berhad, from an initial 31.81% to 89.88%, and
consolidated Stemlife as a subsidiary on December 7, 2015. Stemlife accounted for S$3.5 million of the increase in the
Group’s revenue. The greater control of Stemlife allows the Group to achieve higher earnings as a result of increasing
its penetration in the Malaysian market amidst the growing demand for healthcare services in the Asia Paci c region.
Since becoming a subsidiary, Stemlife has implemented several initiatives to reap greater cost ef ciencies through
economies of scale by aligning with the Group’s practices. One such initiative includes the switch of their automated
cord blood processing system to Sepax 2, a technology used by the Group since 2008. Stemlife also introduced a new
cord blood and cord tissue bundle service during the year to increase their market competitiveness and to increase
average revenue per client.
In FY2016, our team in Hong Kong (“Cordlife Hong Kong”) intensi ed their marketing efforts to raise awareness through
seminars, antenatal classes and exposition events in both Hong Kong and Macau. In response to shifting consumers’
media consumption behaviours, Cordlife Hong Kong further entrenched their brand presence on digital platforms by
leveraging on the latest digital marketing techniques to drive information and create demand for their services. During
the year, Cordlife Hong Kong relocated its corporate of ce from Hong Kong Science and Technology Park (“Science
Park”) to Kowloon Bay area to achieve cost rationalisation. Their stem cell processing and cryopreservation storage
facility as well as diagnostics laboratory continued to remain in Science Park to maintain market competitiveness.
On quality front, Cordlife Hong Kong successfully passed an on-site inspection conducted by a team of external quality
assessors from AABB in January 2016. This was the third time Cordlife Hong Kong passed the inspection since their
achievement of AABB accreditation in 2011.
