HONG KONG, Feb. 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Cord Blood
Corporation (NYSE: CO) ("GCBC" or the "Company"), China's leading provider of cord blood
collection, laboratory testing, hematopoietic stem cell processing
and stem cell storage services, today provided an update on the
impact of the 2019 novel coronavirus ("2019-nCoV") on its
operations.
On December 31, 2019, the Wuhan
Municipal Health Commission first reported the appearance of
2019-nCoV in the city. Since then, 2019-nCoV has spread to other
regions of China, including in
GCBC's primary markets of Beijing,
Guangdong, and Zhejiang. As the epidemic continued, different
cities in China took different
measures, including implementing complete or partial lockdowns.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Lunar New Year holidays were extended in
order to curb the spread of the virus, resulting in insufficient
work force and delayed production for many industries.
These preventative measures have also impacted the Company's
daily operations. The efforts enacted to control 2019-nCoV have
placed heavy pressure on GCBC's marketing, promotional, and sales
activities. Part of the Company's salesforce is unable to return to
work due to lockdowns implemented in various cities, and some
hospitals are restricting entrance to hospital staffs and patients.
These measures have had a meaningful impact on the Company's
marketing efforts and access to potential clients, rendering client
conversion extremely challenging at this time.
The Company is focused on protecting the safety and well-being
of its work force while also ensuring that no disruption occurs to
the day-to-day services that it provides to existing clients.
Therefore, the Company has increased its efforts to purchase
necessary medical supplies and equipment, which is expected to lead
to an increase in operating costs.
The GCBC management team is paying close attention to the
development of the virus and continues to assess the related risks
and impacts on the business and its performance. Although the
Company has begun to explore new marketing models and initiatives,
the management team believes that the benefits will be more
meaningful in the long term.
It remains difficult to estimate the duration and magnitude of
2019-nCoV, but the Company anticipates a negative impact to its
fiscal 2020 fourth quarter performance ending March 31, 2020. Because of the fluidity of the
situation, management will not rule out the possibility of
adjusting its sales target for the current fiscal year or its
strategy for the coming fiscal year. In light of the rapidly
changing situation across different regions, the Company will
continue to derive new countermeasures to mitigate 2019-nCoV impact
in any way possible.
About Global Cord Blood Corporation
Global Cord Blood Corporation is the first and largest umbilical
cord blood banking operator in China in terms of geographical coverage and
the only cord blood banking operator with multiple licenses. Global
Cord Blood Corporation provides cord blood collection, laboratory
testing, hematopoietic stem cell processing and stem cell storage
services. For more information, please visit the Company's website
at: http://www.globalcordbloodcorp.com.
For more information, please contact:
Global Cord Blood Corporation
Investor Relations Department
Tel: (+852) 3605-8180
Email: ir@globalcordbloodcorp.com
ICR, Inc.
William Zima
Tel: (+86) 10-6583-7511
U.S. Tel: (646) 405-5185
Email: William.zima@icrinc.com
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SOURCE Global Cord Blood Corporation