Written by Kane Wu and Yantrutla Gui
HONG KONG/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Hillhouse and Japan’s Mitsui & Co. have emerged as the final bidders for Singapore-headquartered traditional Chinese medicine chain Yuyansang International in a deal that could fetch more than $700 million. Two people revealed this. Said.
Yu Yan Sun shareholders, led by Singapore-based asset manager Tower Capital Asia, are expected to hold a management presentation with bidders next week, one of the people said.
Sources said a final binding bid is expected to be submitted by February, before the Chinese New Year.
A third bidder is also on board for the Yu Yan Sun deal, one of the people and a third party familiar with the deal said, but Reuters could not confirm the identity.
All sources declined to be named because the process is private.
Hillhouse and Mitsui & Co. declined to comment. Eu Yan Sang and Tower Capital did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.
The over 140-year-old traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) business currently operates a distribution network with over 170 retail outlets across mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia and Singapore.
According to its website, the company operates 30 traditional Chinese medicine clinics in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and mainland China, as well as a restaurant in Malaysia.
A consortium made up of Tower Capital, a division of Temasek Holdings, and Yu Yan Sun’s group chief executive Richard Yu, took the company private from the Singapore Exchange in 2016. The transaction valued Yu Yan Sun at approximately $196 million at the time.
According to a statement at the time, Mitsui & Co. had an indirect interest in You Yang Sun by joining Tower Capital Asia Fund, an investor in Yu Yang Sun, in 2022. It is said that there is.
Hillhouse, an investment firm founded by Chinese-born dealmaker Lei Zhang, is a minority shareholder in Yu Yan Sun and first invested in the company before it was delisted in 2016.
(Reporting by Kane Wu in Hong Kong and Yantortla Gui in Singapore; Editing by Sonali Paul)