【英语中国】中国医疗保健企业并购和上市热潮到来

The budding promise of China's health-care sector is prompting a spate of deals and share offerings that has defied the broader market malaise.

In the last 10 months, 23 pharmaceutical and heath-care-related firms have gone public in mainland China and Hong Kong, according to Dealogic. Many deals are small: 17 of them raised less than $200 million, and eight were for $100 million or less. But cumulatively they have packed a punch, raising $5.37 billion, the data show, with companies continuing to list even through the market turbulence stirred up by debt problems in Europe.

Interest in takeovers has picked up, too. In April, U.S. pharmaceutical-research company Charles River Laboratories International Inc. agreed to buy one of China's largest drug-research contractors, WuXi AppTec Co., for about $1.6 billion in cash and stock. (Activist hedge fund Jane Partners LLC, which owns about 7% of Charles River, is trying to block approval.)

'We have more than a handful of M&A situations brewing now' involving Chinese health-care companies, says Brian Gu, head of China corporate finance and M&A at J.P. Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Ltd. He said there are 'quite a few small to mid-cap companies on the way' in the Hong Kong IPO market.

Across Asia, pharmaceutical, life-science and health-care service companies are attracting attention from investors as increasing affluence drives demand for better medical services and as governments invest in improving the quality of public health care. For some companies, low manufacturing costs and rising quality control are opening up export opportunities as well. Adding to the appeal is the belief that these companies are defensive plays whose prospects aren't subject to the ups and downs of banks, commodity stocks or other more-cyclical parts of the economy.

'Overall, we're very focused on the sector,' says Stephen Peel, managing partner at private-equity firm TPG in Hong Kong.

He calls China 'especially interesting.' The level of health-care spending is low relative to gross domestic product, he says.

Mr. Peel and others note that ambitious health-care reforms announced by Beijing last year are a big driver of interest in Chinese companies.

Last year, TPG invested an undisclosed amount in NT Pharma, a Hong Kong-based maker and distributer of pharmaceutical products in China. In October 2007, it invested more than US$30 million in ShangPharm Corp., a China-based company focused on research and development in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.

A turning point for the sector came last September when Sinopharm Group Co., China's largest distributer of pharmaceutical products, successfully raised US$1.3 billion in a Hong Kong IPO. Sinopharm's listing, bankers say, proved that the China health-care story could successfully drum up serious money, rerating the entire sector. Since the listing, Sinopharm's stock has risen 73%, although shares fell 2.1% Friday in an overall down market.

Private-equity firms and other big investors looking for deals have now turned their sights on Chinese health-care companies listed in Singapore and New York, where valuations remain well below levels in Hong Kong and China's domestic exchanges. The aim, ultimately, is to relist in Hong Kong or the mainland and capture that higher valuation.

A company backed by Morgan Stanley's Asian private-equity arm took over Singapore-listed Sihuan Pharmaceutical Holdings Group Ltd., in an acquisition last autumn that valued the Chinese drug maker at 458.3 million Singapore dollars (US$332.4 million). Morgan Stanley also is advising New York Stock Exchange-listed Tongjitang Chinese Medicines Co., in a bid to take the company private led by Tongjitang's chairman and Fosun Industrial Co., a unit of Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co., who together control more than 80% of the company's shares. The bid values the company at US$117.1 million.

Enthusiasm for health-care deals has in some cases led to excessive valuations, as was the case with Shenzhen Hepalink Pharmaceutical Co. The Chinese maker of heparin, a blood-thinning product made from pigs' intestines, listed on the Shenzhen stock exchange in May with a share price equal to 73 times its 2009 earnings on a diluted basis, raising 5.93 billion yuan ($875.3 million).

Helping generate enthusiasm for the stock was its selling point as the only Chinese heparin producer with approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to provide heparin's active pharmaceutical ingredient to the U.S. market.

Since the listing, the stock has fallen 23%. But on paper, at least, it has still been a hugely profitable deal for Goldman Sachs Group, which bought into the company through its principal investment arm. At the latest market price, Goldman's 11.2% stake in the listed entity, which is subject to a 12-month lockup period, is worth about five billion yuan, or US$738 million. That is about 150 times Goldman's initial investment of $4.9 million.

中国医疗保健业美好的未来正在引发一轮交易和股票发行，未受大盘低迷影响。

根据Dealogic 数据，过去10个月中，23家制药和医疗保健相关企业已在中国大陆和香港公开上市。许多交易规模较小：其中17家筹资额不到2亿美元，8家筹资规模为1亿美元或更少。但数据显示，累积起来可不少，总计筹资达到53.7亿美元，尽管欧洲债务问题导致市场动荡，但企业不断上市融资。

并购兴趣也上升了，4月美国医药研究企业Charles River Laboratories International Inc.决定以约16亿美元现金加股票的方式购买中国最大医药研究代工商之一药明康德（WuXi AppTec Co.）。（活跃对冲基金Jane Partners LLC持有Charles River约7%的股权，正在努力阻止该交易的通过。）

摩根大通证券（亚太）（J.P. Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Ltd.）中国企业融资和并购业务主管顾宏地说，我们手里有许多酝酿着涉及中国医疗保健企业的并购业务，他说，有相当多的中小企业即将在香港首次公开募股（IPO）市场上市。

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images过去 10个月，23家中国大陆和香港的制药和健康保健相关公司已上市。图为中国安徽，医疗人员正在医院照顾猪流感病人。纵观亚洲，制药、生命科学和医疗保健服务公司正在吸引着投资者的注意，因富裕程度越来越高驱动着对更好的医疗服务的需求，而且政府进行投资以改善公共医疗服务的质量。就一些公司来说，较低的生产成本和越来越好的质量控制打开了出口的大门。有观点认为，这些医疗保健企业是抗跌股，其前景不受银行、大宗商品或其他经济景气周期板块的涨跌影响，因此更具吸引力。

香港私募股权投资公司TPG合伙人皮尔（Stephen Peel）说，整体来说，我们非常关注这个行业。

他认为中国“非常有吸引力”。相对于国内生产总值（GDP），中国的医疗保健支出水平较低。

皮尔等人注意到，去年北京宣布的雄心勃勃的医疗改革方案是人们对中国企业感兴趣的巨大动力。

去年TPG向泰凌医药（NT Pharma）进行了投资，但投资数目未予披露。泰凌医药是一家总部位于香港、在中国大陆生产和分销药品的企业。2007年10月，TPG向尚华医药研发服务集团（ShangPharm Corp.）投资逾3000万美元，这是一家总部位于中国大陆，侧重医药和生物科技研发的公司。

该行业的转机来自去年9月国药控股（Sinopharm Group Co.）的上市，这是中国最大的医药产品分销企业，该公司通过在香港股市IPO成功地融资13亿美元。银行家说，国药控股的上市表明中国医疗保健业可以成功地招徕大量资金，重新评定整个行业。国药控股自上市以来，股价已累计涨73%，不过在周五的市场整体下跌中下挫2.1%。

私募股权投资公司和其他正在寻找交易的大投资机构已将视线聚焦于在新加坡和纽约上市的中国医疗保健企业，在这两地上市的企业估值远低于在香港和中国大陆股票交易所的估值。其最终目的是在香港或中国大陆再上市，获取更高的估值。

摩根士丹利旗下亚洲私募股权投资分支支持的一家公司去年秋天以4.583亿坡元（合3.324亿美元）收购了在新加坡上市的四环医药控股。摩根士丹利亦在为纽约上市的同济堂药业提供顾问服务，希望将该公司私有化，由同济堂董事长和上海复星医药旗下复星实业牵头，这位董事长和复星实业共持有该公司超过80%的股权。该交易对该公司的估值为1.171亿美元。

对医疗保健交易的热情导致一些情况估值过高，就像深圳海普瑞药业一样，该公司于5月在深圳证交所上市，经过稀释后，基于2009年赢利的市盈率为73倍，筹资59.3亿元人民币 (合8.753亿美元)。该公司制造用猪肠生产的血液稀释产品──肝磷脂。

帮助激发市场对该股热情的是其卖点，因这是中国唯一一家从美国食品药物管理局（FDA）获准向美国市场提供肝磷脂活跃药物成份的中国肝磷脂生产企业。

上市以来，该股已累计下跌23%，但帐面上至少仍是高盛集团（Goldman Sachs Group）的一笔获利丰厚的交易，高盛通过旗下资本投资分支买入该公司股权，以最新市价估算，高盛在该上市实体中11.2%的股权虽受限于12个月禁售期，但价值约50亿元人民币，合7.38亿美元，这是高盛初期投资490万美元的大约150倍。