Here’s why Raffles Medical share price (SGX: BSL) plunged 12%

LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP My last coverage on Raffles Medical share price (SGX: BSL) was in June 2020. Back then, the counter was recovering from the initial impact of the pandemic. Nonetheless, Raffles Medical share price (SGX: BSL) remained sluggish for most of 2020 until news of vaccines broke out in November 2020. Since then, global roll-out of vaccine programmes and easing of border restrictions led to Raffles Medical share price (SGX: BSL) rocketing to a near-record high of $1.55 in October 2021.

Unexpectedly, the bullish form Raffles Medical share price (SGX: BSL) was brought to a screeching halt when the shares plunged 12% to reach a low of $1.35 on 3 November 2021. To be honest, the volatility of Raffles Medical share price (SGX: BSL) is rather rare and it prompted a Lifetime Member of SG Wealth Builder to seek an insight from me.

There are analysts who claimed that the recent correction of Raffles Medical share price (SGX: BSL) is due to the revised on-arrival COVID PCR test requirements for travellers arriving in or transiting through Singapore (from 7 Oct 2021 onwards, travellers from CAT II, III & IV countries do not need to do on-arrival PCR tests). For perspective, Raffles Medical conducted over 600,000 COVID-9 tests and screened more than six million travellers in 2020. So the latest changes on arrival test requirements for travellers could have a big impact on Raffles Medical share price (SGX: BSL) in the short-term.

Whilst the revised test regime for travellers may impact Raffles Medical’s revenue, I think a greater impact could come from the transition from Rostered Routine Testing (RRT) to Employer Supervised Self Swab (ESSS) as required by various government agencies.

Workers in Changi Airport, local airlines, construction, marine shipyard, process sectors and those workers living in dormitories are subjected to RRT. Essentially, it means they are required by government agencies to go for repetitive testing within certain intervals. Previously, RRT was done using PCR, which has to be performed by an MOH-approved service provider. Raffles Medical is one of the approved service providers. The business is not only lucrative for the service providers because the affected industries employ hundreds of thousands of employees, it is also recurring in nature because of the routine testing requirement.

Around mid-October, various government agencies started to [This is a premium article. The rest of the content is blocked and can be accessible by SG Wealth Builder Members only. To read the full content, please sign up as member.]

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