Golden Meditech Increases Stakes in Cordlife, Largest Cord Blood Bank Operator in Sout...( HONG KONG Oct. 28 /Xinhua-- Golde...),Health

HONG KONG, Oct. 28 /Xinhua-PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Golden Meditech Company Limited ("Golden Meditech" or "the Group", HKEx: 8180) is pleased to announce today that the Group has increased shareholding in Cordlife, Southeast Asia's largest umbilical cord blood bank operator listed on Australia Stock Exchange, to 18.9%, and became the latter's single largest shareholder at a consideration of 2.4 million Australian Dollars (equivalent to HK$12 million).

Mr. KAM Yuen, Chairman of Golden Meditech, explained that Cordlife not only owns the exclusive license of operating cord blood bank services in Indonesia and the only one operating license issued to a foreign entity in India, but also has operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, etc.

Mr. KAM said that raising the strategic ownership of shareholding in Cordlife has not only extended the arms of Group's cord blood bank business beyond China, to the rest of the world's most-populated countries in Asia- Pacific regions, but also helps improve the success rate of HLA (human leukocyte antigen) marching in Asia as well, which can benefit a large number of patients in need of stem cell transplants.

He emphasized that along with the further development in India, Indonesia and other Asian states, where the cord blood bank services just began to gain the spotlights, Asia will soon become the world's largest market of cord blood bank services.

According to the statistics of the United Nations Population Division, almost 61% of the world's population, approximately 3.87 billion people reside in Asia. Besides, Asia has about 80 million newborn babies a year, who are the target customers of the cord blood bank services.

He said that despite the ongoing financial crisis that has induced extreme volatility of the capital market, healthcare industry on its own is less affected by such business cycles. The management will cautiously look into investment opp
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