The restricted shares of Arrail Group Limited (Arrail Group or the Company, HKG: 6639), a leading dental services group in China, will be officially lifted and listed for circulation on 22 September 2022. In this regard, the Company’s management and investors clearly presented the idea of being “hoarding” and their current confidence.
Arrail Group is a leading dental services group and have established a nationwide footprint in China, operating both Arrail Dental, a leading premium dental services brand, and Rytime Dental, a middle-end dental services brand. According to Frost & Sullivan Report, the Company is the largest dental service provider in China’s premium private dental service market and the third largest dental service provider in China’s entire private dental service market based in terms of total revenue in 2020.
Institutional shareholders’ confidence in long-term development is demonstrated by “not to reduce its shareholding”
Based on the confidence in the industry prospect and the future development of Arrail Group, the major investors of the Company said that they would continue to hold shares. Meanwhile, as disclosed in the prospectus of the Company, approximately 31.55% of the shares held by Mr. Zou Qifang, the founder of the Company, and his management team will remain locked for 6 months until the end of March 2023.
It is understood that prior to the public offering, Arrail Group has carried out several rounds of financing from January 2010 to January 2021, with the Pre-IPO Investors including KPCB China Fund, Qiming Venture Partners, OrbiMedAsia, Temasek, Goldman Sachs, Hillhouse Capital, etc. During the listing period, the Company also introduced five cornerstone investors, namely Abax, Harvest, Hudson Bay, OrbiMedAsia OrbiMed and Modern Dental, with subscribed amount of approximately HK$507 million of shares, accounting for approximately 74.66% of the offering shares as per the IPO Price with a lock-up period of 6 months. The “no reducing shareholding” idea of the management of Arrail Group and major investors will not only help stabilise the share price of the Company, but also promote the long-term stable development of the Company and enhance investors’ confidence.
The scarcity and uniqueness of national chain are recognised by the market
It is worth mentioning that few institutions can achieve the nationwide coverage with the distinguishing regional characteristics of the dental service market. The Company is the only national chain dental institution listed on the market at present. Its business is distributed in four core regions domestically, namely North China, East China, South China and West China, and 15 cities. The scarcity and uniqueness of Arrail Group are gradually being recognised.
Since entering the Hong Kong Stock Connect on 5 September, both the share price and liquidity have improved significantly. On 9 September, the trading volume reached approximately 7 million shares, with over HK$63 million. The share price has increased by nearly 100% since early September. The Company’s business expansion prospects and development potential are promising.
The solid fundamentals and outstanding performance also added confidence for “not to reduce its shareholding”. As disclosed in the financial report, affected by the news and the improvement of comprehensive strength, for the financial year ended 31 March 2022, the total number of visits of Arrail Group reached 1.559 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 13.7% from 1.371 million in the financial year 2020/2021; The total revenue was RMB1.624 billion (the same below), representing a year-on-year increase of 7.16% as compared to the financial year 2020/2021; The adjusted net profit for the year amounted to RMB66 million, up 18.0% year on year, with strong profitability.
The next step of the Company’s development is also worth the market’s expectation. In early July, Arrail Group announced a strategic cooperation with Wuxi Tongshan. The project was completed on 1 September. In addition, the two new hospitals and six clinics in this financial year were also basically completed. It is expected that 268 chairs will be added in this financial year, representing an increase of 20% as compared to the previous financial year. The management of the Company stated that the new chairs will lay a solid foundation for the long-term development of the Company in the future.
In the long run, with the implementation of the centralised purchase policy, the market gradually returns to the rational cognition of the health care service sector. As the only listed national dental chain medical institution in the market, Arrail Group is undoubtedly the first one to enjoy the market bonus. In the future, Arrail Group will continue to improve its operational capabilities and service quality, and enhance its core competitive advantages. It is expected that the results and valuation of Arrail Group will be improved, thus promoting the further development of its dental services.
