SINGAPORE – A Tower Capital Asia-led consortium is considering selling its consumer healthcare company Eu Yan Sang International, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The Singapore-based mid-market private equity firm, along with Temasek unit Blanca Investments and members of the founding family, is working with financial advisers on the planned disposal of its majority stake in the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) company, the people said.
A deal could value Eu Yan Sang International, which was taken private in 2016, at about US$800 million (S$1.1 billion), said the people.
The remaining shareholders outside the consortium may participate in the potential sale, the people said, asking not to be identified as the process is private.
Deliberations are at an early stage and the consortium could decide to hold on to the asset, the people said. A spokesman for Temasek declined to comment, while representatives of Eu Yan Sang International and Tower Capital Asia did not respond to requests for comment.
Eu Yan Sang International has been in business for 144 years, tracing its roots to a shop in Gopeng, Perak, north of Kuala Lumpur, in 1879, according to its website.
Its roughly 900 products include bottled bird’s nest and Hou Ning powder. Research collaboration with the Chinese University of Hong Kong led to products such as a pill to address menstrual and menopausal symptoms for elderly women, and an anti-viral formula for use during the Sars epidemic, the website shows.
The Singapore-headquartered company currently has over 170 retail outlets, about 25 TCM clinics and three medical centres across Greater China, Singapore and Malaysia, according to the website.
It also manufactures TCM products at plants in Hong Kong and Malaysia.
In 2022, Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co agreed to participate in a Tower Capital Asia fund that is an investor in Eu Yan Sang, according to a statement.
Mitsui also backed United States supplement maker Thorne HealthTech four years earlier, and the two firms have jointly established a Singapore entity, the statement shows. BLOOMBERG
