Clearbridge says unaware of reason for share price surge, notes Biolidics announcement

CLEARBRIDGE Health on Thursday night said it does not know of any unannounced information which might explain the jump in its share price earlier in the day.

However, it pointed out that in the afternoon, its associated company Biolidics had appointed Aytu Bioscience as the exclusive US distributor for Biolidics' Covid-19 rapid test kit.

Clearbridge Health was responding to the Singapore Exchange's (SGX) queries about its unusual price movement on Thursday. The counter climbed 49 per cent to reach an intraday high of 38 Singapore cents between 3.15pm and 3.29pm, although it later pared most of the gains to close at 22.5 cents. It was the most heavily traded by volume, with 295.7 million shares worth S$92.3 million changing hands.

Clearbridge Health's wholly-owned subsidiary, Clearbridge BSA, had a 24.8 per cent stake in Biolidics as at March 18, going by Biolidics' annual report.

Separately, Clearbridge said on Thursday that it had issued 3,571,428 adjusted conversion shares to a convertible bond holder with an aggregate principal amount of S$500,000 at an adjusted conversion price of 14 cents.

GET BT IN YOUR INBOX DAILY

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign UpVIEW ALL

This has, in turn, raised the share capital of the company from 580,984,234 to 584,555,662 shares.

Trading of the adjusted conversion shares will commence from 9am on April 27.

The integrated healthcare company first signed a subscription agreement to issue S$11 million in bonds last January to seize acquisition opportunities for medical clinics and centres as well as laboratories in South-east Asia.

Members of Clearbridge's management team, including its non-executive, non-independent chairman Johnson Chen, executive director and CEO Jeremy Yee, chief commercial officer Jonathan Liau, chief business officer Simon Hoo, and other employees of the company also subscribed for the bonds.

Clearbridge shares were trading at 20.5 Singapore cents as at the midday break on Friday, down two cents or 8.9 per cent.