Li Ka-Shing increases investment in Canada’s WELL Health Technologies

Penny stocks and A-level billionaires don’t normally go hand-in-hand, but in Canada one legendary investor, Li Ka-Shing, is making a notable exception.

Li Ka-shing, the man Forbes calls “Asia’s most celebrated tycoon” has invested in a Canadian junior tech stock called WELL Health Technologies (WELL Health Technologies Stock Quote, Chart TSXV:WELL) for the third time in a matter of months.

Ka-Shing on June 13th invested $500,000 in an upsized bought deal financing which was ultimately used, in part, to finance the acquisition of Ontario’s KAI Innovations.

Ka-Shing’s purchases are part of a string of recent insider buys on the stock, which include multiple purchases from CEO and founder Hamed Shahbazi, who is the company’s largest shareholder. Shahbazi sold his fintech company, TIO Networks, to PayPal in 2017 for approximately $302-million.

“We’re very pleased to have Mr. Li’s and Horizon Ventures’ support,” Shahbazi said of an earlier investment from the Asian billionaire, who through his Horizons Ventures has made notable investments into American tech giants Facebook and Spotify. “Our management team is working hard to provide shareholders with a strong return by pursuing a very focused and disciplined mergers and acquisitions strategy not only allows us to accumulate profitable assets in The healthcare industry but also allows us to improve interoperability and modernization. We are absolutely committed to utilizing enhanced digitization in healthcare to improve health outcomes.”

Ka-Shing now owns more than 10-million shares of WELL personally, plus another position through Horizons Ventures.

Following the completion of the financing, multiple analysts raised their price targets on WELL Health, including Eight Capital, GMP and Haywood. Haywood analyst Daniel Rosenberg said despite revenue he now expects will top $42-million in just the company’s third year, he expects this is still early days for the company that combines technology with traditional medical clinics.

““WELL is in the early stages of leveraging technology to improve outcomes and drive operational efficiencies in the ripe healthcare sector,” Rosenberg said in an update to clients recently. “Predictable cash flows from its primary health clinics help to de-risk WELL’s strategy of incubating, deploying and scaling new technologies in healthcare. We like this strategy and believe investors will be rewarded as WELL unlocks synergies between primary clinics, patients and technology solutions,” says Rosenberg.

Shares of WELL Health closed Friday up a penny to $0.93.

Disclaimer: Cantech’s Nick Waddell and Jayson MacLean own shares of WELL and the company is an annual sponsor of Cantech.

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