Hot stock: Q&M plunges on vendor sale announcement

SHARES in Q&M Dental Group dived in early trade on Friday, after the group's substantial shareholders Quan Min Holdings and Heritas Helios Investments announced plans to undertake a vendor sale.

The counter opened at S$0.90 and fell to as low as S$0.83 amid heavy trading, after a two-day trading halt was lifted. As at 11.18am, it traded at S$0.87, down 7.4 per cent from Thursday's close.

Some 52.3 million shares worth S$43 million changed hands, making it the second most traded stock on the Singapore Exchange.

Q&M said that four other shareholders - Kelvin Koh, Felicia Koh, Foo Mooh Thong and Health Field Enterprise - also plan to participate in the sale.

The company has lifted a partial moratorium on the sale of their shares to allow them to monetise part of their investments.

Q&M noted that it has issued shares as consideration for almost all of its acquisitions. "Allowing some of the earlier strategic investors and acquirees an opportunity to partially monetise their investments will make the use of shares and moratoriums more acceptable in future acquisitions, and will help the company's growth trajectory," it said in an announcement on Thursday night.

The group's CEO Ng Chin Siau, deputy CEO Ng Jet Wei and chief operating officer Raymond Ang Ee Peng had refrained from voting on the decision as they are also interested in the vendor sale.

The sale shares will be placed to multiple investors, and not to any one investor lest it becomes a substantial shareholder of the company, Q&M said.

The group also said earlier on Thursday that it had plans to acquire a 60 per cent stake in three dental clinics in Liaoning province for 12.2 million yuan (S$2.65 million) in cash, expanding its presence in China further.