Mum's the word

Nancy Li

Saint Bella, a luxury maternity and baby care group based in China, has applied to go public in Hong Kong.

Established in 2017, Saint Bella provides postpartum confinement care and has 59 centers under three brands -- Saint Bella, Bella Isla and Baby Bella.

These include 47 of its own centers and 12 managed centers, the prospectus shows.

The concept of confinement in China, known as "sitting the month," is when a new mother stays at home for one month to allow her body to rest after giving birth.

Many businesses offer such postpartum confinement care services that include professional nursing and a restorative diet.

The cost of Saint Bella's 28-day postpartum care under its most luxurious brand, Saint Bella, runs from 168,000 yuan (HK$ 184,700) to over 500,000 yuan, while the price of the high-end Baby Bella starts from 68,000 yuan. Bella Isla, a mid-end brand focusing on mental health, is priced from 98,800 yuan.

Saint Bella's revenue increased by 82 percent from 259 million yuan in 2021 to 472 million yuan in 2022, but growth slowed in 2023, with revenue up 18.7 percent to 560 million yuan.

While revenue increased over the period, Saint Bella recorded net losses of 122 million yuan, 412 million yuan and 239 million yuan in the three years.

Saint Bella finally came out of the red in 2023 with an adjusted net profit of 20.77 million yuan. Before that, it had an adjusted loss of 29.87 and 44.63 million yuan in 2021 and 2022.

Decreasing birth rates in China have put pressure on postpartum care businesses.

Postpartum care company Aidigong (0286), which listed in Hong Kong in 2019 through a reverse takeover, made a net loss of HK$177 million in 2023 and has accumulated losses of more than HK$700 million over the past four years.

However, Saint Bella was the largest postpartum care and recovery provider in terms of revenue from ultra-premium postpartum centers in 2023, as well as the fastest-growing scaled postpartum and recovery group in terms of revenue growth rate from 2021 to 2023, a report from Frost & Sullivan shows.

Saint Bella's postpartum care centers are mostly located in major cities across the mainland.

It also has two overseas centers - in America and Singapore - and one in Hong Kong which it opened in 2021 under a tie-up with New World Development's (0017) healthcare unit Humansaone.

Saint Bella's parent PrimeCare International has received capital from seven rounds of financing since it was established in 2017 from investors that include Tencent Investment, Gaorong Capital, Sun Hung Kai (0086), China Life (2628) and Swire Properties (1972), according to 36Kr, a business media outlet in the mainland.

Tencent and Gaorong Capital are its top two investors with stakes of 11.61 percent and 8.26 percent respectively.

In addition to postpartum centers, Saint Bella operates two other lines of business - home care services and women's wellness foods.

In July 2018, Saint Bella launched its home care service called PrimeCare for the Family, providing professional babysitting services for infants up to the age of three at prices ranging from 172,800 yuan to 384,000 yuan.

In October 2021, Saint Bella bought GuangHeTang, a producer of women's wellness foods, and a year later it acquired lingerie brand S-bra, as part of postpartum recovery services.

Still, earnings from postpartum centers have contributed more than 80 percent of its total revenue in the past three years.