Singapore dental servie provider aims to list China business in 5 yrs,

May 30, 2011 Singapore-based service provider Q&M Dental Group has set a five-year target to list its China business, once the joint ventures that it holds there achieve a combined profit of 80 million to 90 million yuan (12.3 million to 13.9 million U.S. dollars), local daily Business Times reported on Monday. To fund its expansion plans in China, the group is undertaking a secondary listing in China's Taiwan to raise up to 50 million U. S. dollars. "We want to do another IPO (initial public offering) based on our China businesses. We are contemplating to list either in Hong Kong or (in) China's mainland," said Ng Chin Siau, chief executive officer of the group. The group is expanding in China through joint ventures to avoid the lengthy process obtaining dental licenses and setting up clinics from scratch. It has put in place a Singapore team in Shanghai to handle regulatory and accounting issues, and to ensure that management contracts and with joint venture partners are adhered to. Q&M is competing in the niche segment of dental services in China, where only ten percent of the market is served by private clinics, of which only 5 percent are considered to be high-end. "We are competing on quality, not on fees. It's about doing less with more," Ng said. Q&M is maintaining its target of having 50 dental clinics and 20 research laboratories in China by 2015. It owns a 30 percent stake in Ayashi dental group, which operates three dental clinics in Beijing, and a 50 percent stake in Dan De dental group, which operates four dental clinics, one dental center and a mobile clinic in Nanjing. It is in the process of forming joint ventures with two dental laboratories. Q&M now operates two dental clinics in Johor, Malaysia and 41 in Singapore.