SINGAPORE - Mainboard-listed Q&M Dental Group announced on Tuesday that it is proposing to acquire TP Dental Surgeons Pte Ltd for $28.6 million in cash and shares.

The company said it has entered into separate points of agreements with TP Dental's five vendors - Doctors Hwang Yee Cheau, Phua Tin Cock, Tng Thiam Huat, Ngan Kee Leong and Chin Yee Fatt - to acquire all of the company's shareholding for $18 million in cash and $10.6 million in Q&M's shares at an issue price of 70.668 cents per share.

The Q&M shares will be at a 10 per cent discount to the volume weighted price of trades done on April 24, 2015.

TP Dental, founded in 1973, offers a complete range of dental services and have dentists on call outside normal office hours, said Q&M. The practice also has its own in-house laboratory, where its technicians produce personalised dental appliances, and it has facilities in several private hospitals when extensive oral surgery is required.

Many of its dentists are educators who conduct undergraduate and postgraduate programmes both locally and internationally, said Q&M.

Dr. Hwang Yee Cheau, the dentist in charge and head of operations, graduated from King's College Dental Hospital, University of London, with the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) in 1983. She was awarded the Maurice Kettle Prize in Orthodontics. Dr Hwang also has a Master of Science degree in Orthodontics at Guy's Dental Hospital.

Dr Hwang is a visiting clinical tutor at the Postgraduate Orthodontics Department of the National University Hospital, Singapore. She is also an adjunct senior lecturer and a member of the Orthodontic Committee of Postgraduate Dental Studies at the National University of Singapore. She received the NUH Teaching Excellence Award in 2014.

Q&M said the acquisition will enable it to serve the full spectrum of the dental market in Singapore, from the suburbs in the HDB heartlands to the premier Orchard Road belt and the medical tourism market.