China medical IPO comes with health warnings

Ping An Healthcare and Technology Co

22/04/2021 03:45

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist.  The opinions
expressed are her own.)
    By Yawen Chen
    HONG KONG, April 22 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Tencent-backed
We Doctor boasts the country's first e-hospital offering online
consultations and more. A mooted $12 bln valuation looks punchy
next to rivals focused on lucrative drug sales. We Doctor's
mounting losses and untested business model may give investors
heartburn.
    Full view will be published shortly.
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    CONTEXT NEWS
    - Chinese online healthcare service provider We Doctor filed
for an initial public offering in Hong Kong on April 1. The
offering could raise about $2 billion in the second quarter of
2021 and would value the company at around $12 billion,
Refinitiv publication IFR reported on April 6.
    - Citigroup and CMB International are the sponsors, and
Credit Suisse, CICC and JP Morgan are the joint global
coordinators.
    - We Doctor’s revenue rose 262% last year to 1.8 billion
yuan ($276 million) thanks to surging demand amid the pandemic.
Its adjusted net loss for 2020 was 869 million yuan, compared to
a 757 million yuan loss in 2019.
    - We Doctor operates a network covering over 7,800 hospitals
and 270,000 doctors, according to its prospectus. As of 2020, it
had 222 million registered users and 25.4 million average
monthly paying users.
    - For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can
click on  CHEN/ 
 

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We Doctor prospectus    https://www1.hkexnews.hk/app/sehk/2021/103325/documents/sehk21040104860.pdf
We Doctor files for HK IPO - IFR News      urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nIfp8Qtb3F 
BREAKINGVIEWS- Healthcare IPO examines value of China’s big tech
    urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2IG0H5
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
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 ((yawen.chen@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging:
yawen.chen.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))