Clearbridge Health, trading at a mere $0.003, and a valuation of $20m, presents a high-risk, high-reward scenario. While its valuation is minuscule, a series of strategic moves suggest that a high-stakes turnaround may be underway?

Ven recently wrote about Clearbridge Health getting a $1.98m placement from some astute investors like Asdew Acquisitions, who bought into Sanli Environmental, a company that I was interested in. Sanli, on a YTD basis, did pretty well, rising from $0.09 to $0.24 at time of writing - not a bad return. But it wasn’t an easy company to trade or follow, as it lacks liquidity, and it’s hard to track the company’s performance due to a lack of news and analyst coverage.

They’ve hired Jeremy Yee as CEO, who previously scaled Cordlife Group from 2011-2016 into Singapore’s largest private cord-blood bank. I’m willing to assume that he’s got a good track record in building one healthcare platform previously, and isn’t likely tainted by Cordlife’s 2023’s mishandling of cord blood units.

The capital and leadership are aimed at a single, transformative goal: acquiring Elpis Biopharmaceuticals for US$330 million by a reverse takeover, and running a business that looks similar to Cordlife. But in this case, it’s storing immune cells instead of stem cells.

However, the investment is not for the faint-of-heart. With Clearbridge Health posting a loss of $4.17m last year, the key question is whether to follow the “smart money” for a high-potential but speculative turnaround? Or would it become a wait for profits that will never arrive?

To quote Peter Lim:

Up to a point after people tell you a story and a vision, don’t write it off. Sometimes it comes true. You just make sure that if it doesn’t come true, you don’t get hurt too much.

I have to say, I’m tempted.