SINGAPORE - Private cord blood bank Cordlife Group on Feb 19 announced that it has appointed Mr Yiu Pang Fai as its next group chief executive officer with immediate effect.
He succeeds Ms Tan Poh Lan, who resigned in October 2023 to “pursue personal interests”, said the healthcare group in a bourse filing.
The company disclosed that Mr Yiu’s brother, Mr Yiu Ming Yiu, is a non-independent, non-executive director of Cordlife.
In addition, Mr Yiu’s father, Mr Yiu Chi Shing, and his mother, Ms Lui Yim Sheung, are deemed interested in the shares of Cordlife held by TransGlobal Real Estate Group, which is a controlling shareholder of the healthcare group.
Cordlife’s latest annual report noted that TransGlobal Real Estate has a 27.9 per cent stake in the company as at March 20, 2023.
Before his appointment as Cordlife’s group CEO, Mr Yiu Pang Fai was an executive director of TransGlobal Group’s family office division in Hong Kong.
He has also held executive positions at Popular Holdings, Sichuan Chengmian Expressway and Hebei Shitai Expressway, said Cordlife.
“Before joining TransGlobal Group, Mr Yiu served as an investment manager at Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets in Singapore,” noted the company.
It added that he had “executed high-profile deals”, such as the acquisition of petrochemical tank storage provider Oiltanking Singapore Chemical Storage, during his time at Macquarie.
Cordlife’s board said that after considering the recommendation of the nominating committee and assessing Mr Yiu’s qualification and experience, it was of the view that he had the requisite experience and capability to be group CEO.
Ms Tan’s last day as group CEO was previously announced to be March 31.
She and the company have since agreed that Feb 19 would be when she ceases being executive director and group CEO, although she will work with Mr Yiu to facilitate “the smooth transition of the leadership of the company” until March 31.
The change in leadership comes while Cordlife is serving a six-month suspension from collecting, testing, processing and/or storing new cord blood and human tissue.
The suspension was issued by the Ministry of Health (MOH) in November 2023 after an audit found that the private cord blood bank had exposed cryo-preserved cord blood units in seven tanks at suboptimal temperatures of above -150 deg C.
At the time, the cord blood units in one of the seven tanks were confirmed to have been damaged.
The 2,200 cord blood units in the tank belong to at least 2,150 clients.
In January, MOH said the final results of the tests on Cordlife’s impacted cord blood units will be ready by end-March.
The ministry also found three other process lapses at Cordlife and said it would require the healthcare group to rectify these issues by end-May.
Cordlife began serving its six-month suspension from Dec 15. Its accreditation by the Foundation of the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy has also been suspended indefinitely.
Cordlife shares ended unchanged at 30 cents on Feb 19, before the announcement. THE BUSINESS TIMES
