Nuffield Dental eyes growth with IPO plan

SINGAPORE dental clinic chain Nuffield Dental has recently raised its public profile by taking part in corporate rankings, and raised convertible financing from a group of investors that included two Catalist-listed companies.

As it turns out, those were merely steps leading to bigger goals - an initial public offering (IPO), and the fulfilment of a long-held dream.

"One of the reasons we want to raise funds from an IPO is because we want to open up a world-class private dental hospital in Singapore," Nuffield founder and chief executive Samintharaj Kumar told The Business Times.

"That's been one of my aspirations and dreams since dental school. I'm talking about a purpose-built building housing specialists and general practitioners where patients don't have to wait for an inordinate amount of time to be seen and can have greater access to these complex treatments at a reasonable price."

Dr Kumar did not provide a timeline for his listing plans for Nuffield, which holds a franchise licence for Portuguese dental implant group Malo Clinic. But Nuffield has been growing at a brisk pace since its 2014 founding.

The company was the second fastest-growing Singapore company out of 85 firms studied by global research company Statista and The Straits Times earlier this year. The ranking considered only companies that generated revenue of at least S$150,000 in 2014 and at least S$1.5 million in 2017, excluding investments or fund injections.

It recorded a compound annual growth rate of 187 per cent between 2014 and 2017. Revenue has grown 14 per cent year-on-year in the first five months of 2019, but Dr Kumar said he could not provide revenue and net profit figures due to pending investment activity.

Set up in 2014, Nuffield currently has eight clinics in Singapore, with one at One Raffles Place in the central business district, and most others in residential areas. It hopes to grow its presence to about 12 to 15 clinics across Singapore in the next two to three years.

To fund its expansion, Nuffield in May took S$2.25 million in convertible financing from a number of investors, including Singapore-listed HC Surgical Specialists and Medinex. HC Surgical is a medical services group that provides endoscopic procedures, while Medinex is a medical support and consultancy services provider.

Dr Kumar said that the funds will go towards working capital as well as business expansion, including opening new clinics, improving existing facilities and buying new technology.

The loan to Nuffield is secured by a personal guarantee from Dr Kumar, as well as he and his wife's shares in Nuffield and the right to seek a fixed and floating charge over Nuffield's fixed assets any time during the loan period.

Dr Kumar said that while HC Surgical and Medinex put in the money because they wanted to participate in the company's growth and journey towards an IPO, he has also benefited from HC Surgical CEO Heah Sieu Min's entrepreneurship advice, and from Medinex's expertise in managing the finance and accounts of medical and dental businesses.

"This helps in terms of training our current finance team to ensure they are compliant with the procedures even before we approach listing."

Dr Kumar's ultimate dream of a dental hospital reflects the range of dental services that Nuffield can provide.

With the Malo franchise, Nuffield brought in the Portuguese group's proprietary "All-on-4" technique that allows a whole upper or lower set of teeth to be supported by only four dental implants, thus making the procedure a cost-effective one.

Nuffield currently has 14 full-time dentists who are all senior and experienced. Most are general dentists, with some focusing more on dental implantology, some on orthodontics (a specialty that focuses on correcting bites, occlusion, and the straightness of teeth), and some in gum disease.

Because Nuffield offers comprehensive dentistry, it is thus able to give patients more complex treatments, Dr Kumar said. He cited the case of a 54-year-old woman who was told that she had insufficient bone for full mouth dental implants. She had been to multiple clinics and a hospital to seek an opinion, but was told that it was either not possible or that she would need at least nine to 12 months to achieve this. She was one of the patients that benefited from Nuffield's "All on 4" in a single day.

"More than a decade ago, dental implantology was prohibitively expensive, but more people are doing it now because of the greater access," Dr Kumar said.

Its aesthetics business is also growing as more people seek brighter and more beautiful smiles. For instance, Invisalign aligners - a discreet teeth-straightening alternative to metal braces - are becoming more popular.

Nuffield also provides digital smile design as part of its cosmetic dentistry services, where its dentists use photographs and computer simulations to design how patients want their smiles to look based on the patients' facial and dental proportions.

Demand for dental sleep medicine - which focuses on lifestyle modifications and wearable appliances to treat sleep-disordered breathing - is also increasing amid rising cases of sleeping disorders. The clinic also offers gum plastic surgery for patients whose gums might be receding, using the Pinhole Surgical Technique.

Nuffield is currently working towards employing more specialists to provide orthodontic care such as more complex braces work for patients that have high needs, for instance, from craniofacial genetic disorders such as cleft lip and palate.

Another big focus is geriatric dentistry, Dr Kumar said. "A common problem the elderly have is not being able to eat because they don't have teeth. We can make dentures on the same day for our patients because of our lab. That enables our patients to visit us near their homes, get their teeth done the same day, instead of having six visits over two to three weeks."

As the company makes preparations for an IPO, Dr Kumar is turning to others for help in the non-dental aspect of preparing for listing. His brother, a corporate lawyer who is also conversant in human resource matters, is now general counsel and chief operating officer of Nuffield, handling all legal and strategic operational matters for the company.

"That will help in the next two years as we need to be looking at all our contracts and agreements," Dr Kumar said with a laugh.