One of China’s leading seafood firms has hedged its bets by doubling down on investments into the medical sector.
Shandong Oriental Ocean Sci-tech Co., which farms sea cucumbers, salmon, and shellfish, has purchased Tianjin Xin Hong Medical Treatment Science and Technology Co., which is focused on laboratory services and testing for the medical sector.
Oriental Ocean grabbed headlines in 2016 for its purchase of U.S. based diagnostics firm Avioq. It followed that purchase with a string of acquisitions in China of similar medical research and diagnostic firms.
The Shandong-based company is riding a six-year high in sea cucumber prices and is on course to make profits of CNY 90 million (USD 12.9 million, EUR 11.3 million) from its seafood operations in 2018, according to analysts Zhou Sha and Wang Bin at Tai Ping Yang (Pacific) Securities.
The two analysts estimate that CNY 2.97 billion (USD 427.8 million, EUR 373.6 million) of the company’s revenues come from seafood and CNY 1.9 billion (USD 273.7 million, EUR 239 million) from its medical division in 2018. They’re putting a “buy” recommendation on the firm’s stock.
Oriental Ocean appears to be following a major diversification path similar to that of tilapia-focused Baiyang Investment Co., which has invested significantly in the education and media production industries.
