WHEN Li Xiting secured his company’s first contract at a medical equipment convention in the 1990s, he was trembling with such excitement that he had to sign three times.

Today, Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics is China’s largest medical equipment manufacturer, a US$25 billion behemoth that has made Li, the chairman, Singapore’s third-richest person with a US$7.2 billion fortune, and given fellow co-founder Xu Hang a US$6.7 billion nest egg.

Thanks to the firm’s decision to relist in China, its market value has swelled almost eightfold, creating yet another billionaire: company president Cheng Minghe. The three have a combined net worth of US$15.3 billion.

Shares of the company had traded in New York until 2016, when a consortium led by Li, Xu and Cheng took it private at a market value of US$3.3 billion, regulatory filings show. In October, the firm relisted on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange’s ChiNext board through an initial public offering that valued Mindray at US$8.6 billion. The stock has surged 189 percent since.

Mindray, which makes patient-monitoring and life-support systems as well as ultrasound machines, posted revenue of 13.6 billion yuan (US$2.1 billion) in 2018, a 23 percent increase from a year earlier. Net income climbed 42 percent to 3.7 billion yuan.

“Mindray’s large market cap should attract more investors and financing, while its well-diversified revenue sources could support more stable growth,” said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Nikkie Lu.

Lu predicts the medical-equipment maker will gain market share in China from overseas competitors as the country’s policies favor a shift away from imports. (SD-Agencies)