Healthcare education enterprise launches initial public offering
MELBOURNE: An international healthcare education information provider has launched at initial public offering today in New York.
The Chinese provider of healthcare information, professional training and education services announced on Saturday a “firm commitment” of 3 million ordinary shares to be sold at $4 each.
The debut is scheduled for Monday on the Nasdaq Capital Market, with the expected closing set on Wednesday, Feb. 26. Zhongchao has reserved the ticker symbol “ZCMD.”
The underwriters on the deal, Network 1 Financial Securities Inc and Tiger Brokers (NZ) Ltd., may acquire an additional 450,000 shares upon the IPO, the company said.
Zhongchao intends to use the proceeds of its offering to improve its online courses, upgrade its platform technology, and expand its locations to hire new personnel and attract new customers, it reported.
Founded in 2012, Zhongchao has headquarters in Beijing and Shanghai. It operates platforms MDMOOC for healthcare professionals and Sunshine Health Forums for the public.
CW columnist Donovan Jones, creator of VentureDeal, said in his analysis of Zhongchao in December, “The market opportunity for providing medical education in China is large and growing, especially as China continues to grapple with an aging population growth in the coming decades, so the firm has very positive industry growth trends in its favor.”
According to its latest filings, MDMOOC had about 1,429 education and training programs, about 95% of which were self-developed by Zhongchao’s research and development team. The company reported revenue of $12.9 million and $7 million for the year 2018 and the six months through June 2019, respectively. Net income was $3 million and $1.7 million in the respective periods.
In recent weeks, the stocks of some of China’s online education platforms have witnessed rising interest among investors as the coronavirus scare led to prolonged closures of schools. The stock of Youdao Inc. (NYSE: DAO), an online education platform operated by NetEase (Nasdaq: NTES) grew 50% in the past month to just below $24 per share as of last week.
Jones called the IPO of Zhongchao a “potentially interesting opportunity for a ‘risk-on’ investor.”
