SINGAPORE - A substantial shareholder of Cordlife Group, Robust Plan, sold 4.6 million shares on Jan 23, bringing its stake down from 5.47 per cent to 3.67 per cent, the company said in a bourse filing on Jan 25.

With the sale, which netted $1.5 million, Robust Plan and its beneficial owner Shanghai Dunheng Capital Management ceased to be a substantial shareholder of the private cord blood bank.

The move comes after news of serious lapses in Cordlife’s cord blood storage facilities, with the temperature in one storage tank reaching 20.4 deg C, well above the acceptable limit of minus 150 deg C. Cord blood units have to be stored at temperatures below minus 150 deg C, or they could thaw and be damaged.

Around 2,200 cord blood units in one of the affected tanks were damaged and rendered unsuitable for stem cell transplants.

Investigations into the viability of cord blood units in the six other tanks are under way, with updates by the Ministry of Health (MOH) due soon. The ministry has suspended the company for a six-month period from collecting, testing, processing and/or storing new cord blood and human tissues from Dec 15, 2023.

MOH also found other lapses at Cordlife, such as a new cord blood processing method that was not properly validated, temperature monitoring systems that failed to send notifications when tanks exceeded acceptable levels and preventive maintenance not being carried out for two tanks. The company has until the end of May to rectify the lapses.

Shares of Cordlife closed flat at 30.5 cents on Jan 25, before the latest company announcement. THE BUSINESS TIMES