Legend gets teeth into dental sector

Legend Holdings Ltd, the major shareholder in the world's biggest personal computer maker Lenovo Group Ltd, announced it will enter China's healthcare market as it signed an agreement with iByer Dental Group on Monday.

Legend, focusing on IT, investment and real estate, will initially invest around 1 billion yuan in Beijing-based

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Meanwhile, iByer Dental Group, which was established in 1993, announced it would be renamed Bybo Dental Group.

"It is an opportunity for us to grab a market share in the promising healthcare industry. We will provide value-added services for Bybo in terms of capital, strategy, management, branding, etc," said Zhu Linan, president of Legend Holdings Ltd.

As a long-term strategic investment, Legend will add more capital based on the future needs of iByer, said Zhu.

Zhu added that the reason behind the choice of a dental company among various sectors in China' healthcare market exists in iByer's chain operation model.

"It is much more difficult to work with public hospitals because it will take a long time for them to became market-oriented amid China's latest healthcare reforms," said Zhu.

Legend's move echoes the government's call for the market to play a bigger role in reforming the medical sector.

Based on its current 16 departments and 100 branches around the country, Li Changren, president of Bybo, said the company would establish more than 200 branches in 50 cities by the end of 2017 to gain a pole position in China's dentistry market.

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