Amala Foods Plc
(the "Company")
Transaction Update
Amala Foods Plc (LON: DISH) is pleased to update the market further on the progress of the Reverse Takeover process ("the Transaction") following the previous update on 10 July 2024. The Company continues to engage with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in respect of the approval of its prospectus and all also progress other work streams related to the Transaction and the development of the target business. The most recent prospectus draft was submitted on Friday 13 September 2024.
The Company announced previously on 10 July 2024 that its target company is a newly formed healthcare group, Healthcare Medical Plus Pte Ltd ("HMP"), a holding company domiciled in Singapore. HMP has three subsidiaries in the Philippines as follows:
· Dialysis Care Plus Inc (100% owned by HMP) - a company that is building dialysis centres in the Philippines.
· VidaHealth Inc (70% owned by HMP with the further 30% held by the joint venture party) - a diagnostic and medical centre that is in the final stages of construction. The group have an option to build a further 50 centres pursuant to an existing joint venture arrangement.
· TopHealth Medical Clinics Inc ("TopHealth") (50% owned by HMP with further 50% held by management) - the group initially acquired a 40% interest in TopHealth, a diagnostic and medical centre that has been successfully operating since 2009. Annual revenues having been growing consistently over this period. Current audited financial statements show revenue for 2023 was circa £900,000. TopHealth is profitable and is expanding its services and real estate to accommodate additional growth.
HMP has, to date, been funded by its founders and associates.
TopHealth has recently completed a second location which will be opening this week.
The Philippines has previously enacted legislation called The Universal Healthcare Act of 2019. This legislation resulted in the automatic enrolment of citizens in the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation ("PhilHealth") that entitles all citizens to insurance coverage and comprehensive outpatient services. The annual coverage of dialysis services and diagnostics services has been increasing under PhilHealth so that it now covers dialysis patients for up to 156 dialysis sessions per year. The Company believes that the coverage provided by PhilHealth will underpin strong growth in the Philippine healthcare sector over the coming years. On 11 September 2024 the Secretary of the Department of Health and the chair of PhilHealth announced increasing the coverage of dialysis treatments by over 50% from P4,000 (USD 72) to P6,350 (USD114) per treatment.
Transaction Update
Although the Company continues to progress the Transaction with the FCA it has taken longer than anticipated to complete the financial workstreams particularly as the scope of that work has been expanded to include TopHealth business which has a more developed trading history. PKF Philippines audited TopHealth business for the 3 most recent complete years under Philippine Reporting Standards. Unfortunately, some previously unanticipated topup audit work is required in respect of these audits to bring them to a level where they can be reported on in the Company's prospectus. This topup work is now expected to be completed on or about the end of October 2024. The Company will update the market on this in due course.
Whilst the Directors are confident that the Transaction will complete, it remains subject to regulatory approval (including the FCA and the Takeover Panel) and therefore as is normal with these types of transaction there can be no guarantee as to whether or when the Transaction will complete. The Directors will provide further updates to the market in due course.
The Directors would like to thank its shareholders and its investors for their continued patience as the Board continue to strive to achieve a successful outcome for all shareholders and stakeholders. Consistent with the past few years, the Directors continue to neither receive nor accrue any remuneration.
Enquiries:
Jonathan Morley-Kirk, Non-Executive Chairman
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