Rally in Singapore healthcare stocks may not be over

SINGAPORE (May 22): Healthcare stocks in Singapore have rewarded investors with an average 50% gain in the past year, a rally that may continue as companies acquire local clinics to expand in the region’s medical-care market.

Singapore Medical Group Ltd. has more than doubled since August when it announced the purchase of a radiology center, while Singapore O&G Ltd., which runs gynecology centers, has surged 75% in the past 12 months. That’s helped an index of nine medical-services providers worth less than S$1 billion climb three times as much the benchmark Straits Times Index.

As many as 19 transactions involving acquisitions of clinics by publicly-traded companies have been completed in the city state over the last 12 months, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That’s almost twice as many as in 2015. The deal count may rise as more physicians sell their practices to larger providers of medical care, according to DBS Group Research.

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