Cordlife's nine-month net profit rises 39.6% to S$5m

CORDLIFE Group's net profit for the nine months ended Sept 30 rose 39.6 per cent year on year, despite a fall in revenue, it said in an exchange filing on Thursday evening.

The cord blood bank company said in a business update that net profit grew to S$5 million for the nine months, from S$3.6 million in the year-ago period, mainly driven by government relief measures for Covid-19, and lower tax, administrative and marketing expenses.

It recognised an aggregate of S$1.2 million in government relief measures for Covid-19, given in Singapore and Hong Kong, in this quarter. Without the Covid-19 government grants, net profit after tax would have amounted to around S$3.8 million, which represents a 6.5 per cent year-on-year increase, Cordlife said.

Revenue for the nine months fell 17.6 per cent to S$37.9 million, from S$46 million in the year-ago period, due to a decrease in the number of new samples processed and stored in all of the group's operating markets as a result of the pandemic.

"The pandemic has tightened consumer spending and made service deliveries more challenging as many countries imposed movement and border restrictions to stem the spread of Covid-19," Cordlife said.

It noted that the situation has generally resulted in the tapering of new customer sign-ups for banking services during the nine months, and the revenue trend may continue in the last quarter of this year.

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"Any impact on revenue is however likely to be cushioned in part by government grants relating to Covid-19," it added.

Last month, Cordlife announced that its then-chairman and independent director Goh Jin Hian had quit its board to "devote more time to his personal affairs". The announcement came after judicial managers of Inter-Pacific Petroleum sued Dr Goh in relation to an alleged breach of director's duties.

Cordlife shares were trading flat at 34 Singapore cents as at 9.48 am on Friday.