HONG Seng Consolidated Bhd’s wholly-owned subsidiary HS Bio Sdn Bhd has bought a 51% stake in Pow Pocket Sdn Bhd for RM200 mil to enhance its healthcare technology and delivery businesses.
This is part of HS Bio’s continuous initiatives to drive its healthcare business forward and to further deepen its capabilities in HealthChain, which is deemed the most complete COVID-19 infrastructure to help Malaysia battle the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Hong Seng’s non-executive chairman Datuk Seri Dr Chen Chaw Min.
“This deal is also in line with the company’s aim to enhance healthcare service delivery by leveraging technology, including digitalising healthcare services and improving research, development and innovation capacity,” Dr Chen who was also the former Health Ministry’s secretary-general pointed out.
“In view of Pow Pocket’s prospects in the vaccination roll-out programme as well as our existing collaborations with Pow Pocket, the group believes that the proposed acquisition is a strategic move to work exclusively together and strengthen the synergies with its other healthcare subsidiaries.”
Pow Pocket’s principal business which is investment holdings for health technologies-related business activities is currently operating Jengu which is a web-based digital health engine dedicated to COVID-19 screening, vaccination and digital health.
Other than that, Pow Pocket also operates the ImmuPlan portal, an exclusive digital platform for public and private vaccination roll-out in Johor under the guidance of the Johor Biotechnology & Biodiversity Corporation.
A national private vaccination programme, Immunise, was also announced during the signing ceremony and national launch event.
Immunise, the platform engine of ImmuPlan, will become an open and inclusive platform aimed at capturing the demand for booster and juvenile vaccination shots in the country.
Pow Pocket managing director Russell Walter Boyd said Immunise works by democratising and decentralising private vaccine delivery by empowering communities and doctors to make decisions on inoculation.
The Immunise platform will cover everything from online booking and scheduling a vaccine, to back-end order management, physical vaccine delivery & cold chain, refunds, reconciliation and invoicing, key performance indicator (KPI) dash-boarding and reporting.
“We are now moving from adult vaccines to juvenile and booster shots, facilitating a recurring demand for both localised and personalised vaccine delivery,” noted Boyd.
“We are estimating that RM10 bil worth of doses will be required in year 2022 to cover the needs of adult population in Malaysia aged above 18, juveniles aged 12-17 and migrant workers.”
At the close of today’s trading, Hong Seng was down 29 sen or 8.33% to RM3.10 with 20.87 million shares traded, thus valuing the company at RM8.14 bil. – Oct 8, 2021
