KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 5): MSCM Holdings Bhd — to be known as Hong Seng Consolidated Bhd effective tomorrow — has teamed up with a pharmaceutical firm, RP Integrated Bhd, to pursue distributorship and opportunities relating to medical drugs and vaccines from China-based Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co Ltd (Fosun).

The company in August announced its venture into rubber glove manufacturing.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, MSCM said its 51%-owned subsidiary HS Bio Supplies Sdn Bhd has entered into a consortium agreement with RP Integrated today. 

“The agreement is viewed positively to provide HS Bio a timely opportunity to drive its healthcare business forward, particularly in the provision of medicinal drugs and vaccines, should the consortium be granted the distributorship from Fosun,” it said.   

MSCM added that the agreement would contribute positively to the group’s future earnings and improve its financial position, while reducing dependency on its existing businesses.  

HS Bio is mainly engaged in the business of providing medical and healthcare supplies, in addition to the supply chain management services for the healthcare industry.   

RP Integrated’s involvement in the pharmaceutical industry is through its subsidiaries Royce Pharma Manufacturing Sdn Bhd and Poly Laboratories Sdn Bhd, which manufacture medicines and drugs. 
 
Loss-making MSCM, which was formerly known as Panpages Bhd, is principally involved in the business of business-to-business multi-platform media search solution, supply chain management and money lending business.  

The group recently ventured into nitrile glove-making business to turn its financial performance around. It said it will invest RM59 million into the nitrile glove venture, which it anticipates to start yielding returns by the end of 2021. The investment is funded by the RM60 million fresh capital it raised from a cash call made last year.  

The group has been loss making for the past five financial years. For the year ended March 31, 2020 (FY20), it saw its loss narrow to RM7.43 million, from RM13.07 million in FY19, due to lower administrative expenses. 

Revenue for FY20, however, fell 58% to RM4.43 million from RM10.42 million in FY19, due to low business activities which were impacted by the weak economic sentiment and disposal of its loss-making content development business. 
 
MSCM’s share price closed up eight sen or 7.77% at RM1.11 today, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM572.19 million. 
 
Prior to the group’s Aug 25 announcement on venturing into the glove-making business, its share price has been trending upwards since end-July and hit its peak of RM1.76 on Aug 24.  
 
Year-to-date, the counter has jumped by almost 700%.