Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of China Cord Blood Corp. (CO 8.00%), a provider of cord blood collection as well as hematopoietic stem cell collection and storage, fell as much as 11% after announcing the resignation of a member on its board of directors.
So what: According to the press release, Jeremy Yee had resigned as an independent non-executive director of the company and a member of the compensation committee. Mr. Yee, who is the current CEO of Cordlife, one of China Cord Blood's biggest strategic partners, decided stepping down was necessary to focus on running his own company. China Cord Blood now has seven directors with following Yee's resignation and has no intentions of filling his seat at the present time.
Now what: Investors don't like change -- it's as simple as that. When you factor in the ongoing distrust of China-based companies' financials with a resignation of a member of the board of directors you're bound to get some skittish investors heading for the exits. Perhaps more worrisome would be China Cord Blood's ongoing partnership with Cordlife. Although the press release says this will be unaffected, concerns have to be sticking in the back of shareholders' minds. Still, with the company having surpassed Wall Street's EPS expectations in each of the past four quarters, investors with a high risk tolerance may want to dig a bit deeper into China Cord Blood.
