Publicly Traded Cord Blood Banking Companies

As promised, here's a special spotlight on publicly traded cord blood banking companies. The business consists of storing the umbilical cords of new born babies. There are quite a few companies that offer these services in the United States, but only about 30 have met the strict FDA requirements to be considered private or family cord blood banks. Only four are publicly traded companies. Most traders/investors are familiar with names like Cord Blood America Inc. (CBAI.OB) and the slightly lesser known Cyro-Cell Intl (CCEL). However, a lot of people are surprised to find the third and fourth companies happen to be biophrama behemoth Celegene Corp. (CELG) and diagnostic instrument maker Perkin Elmer (PKI).

Cord Blood America Inc. (CBAI) has ! been one of the hottest Stem Cell stocks on the market. It is a holding company that owns subsidiary bank Cord Partners and CorCell
- Share price = $0.014 (as of 2/13/09)
- Received $4 million in funding in July 2008
- $3.3 million in revenues and $1.8 million in gross profits first 9 months of 2008
- Has established infrastructure so low burn rate
- Approximately 310 million shares outstanding; EPS (0.02)
- Approx. 10,000 customers in cord blood business

Cyro-Cell Intl (CCEL) is one of the oldest and largest private cord blood banks. It's been publicly traded since 1991, but shares are very thinly traded.
- Share price = $0.65 (as of 2/13/09)
- Partnership with National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center for study on Endometrial Stem Cells (working with NIH means a good chance at getting money from Obama's stimulus package)
- $13.1 millio! n in revenue and $8.4 million in gross profits for the first 9! month o f 2008;
- 11.7 million shares outstanding; EPS (.06)
- Approx. 175,000 customers in cord blood business

Celgene Corp (CELG) is the parent company of LifeBankUSA, the subsidary that runs the cord blood bank unit. They are the only company that offers the option of banking placental stem cells for family use.
- Share price = $52.31 (as of 2/13/09)
- LifeBankUSA was bought for approx. $60 million
- Approx. 20,000 customers in cord blood business

Perkin Elmer (PKI) is the parent company of Viacord, a cord blood banking business. Viacord was bought in 2007
- Share price = $14.46 (as of 2/13/09)
- Approx. 110,000 customers in cord blood business
- $60-$65 million in revenue form cord blood business
- Viacord was bought for $300 million


Although I did! not include Neostem (NBS) in list of companies, it is often lumped into the group of cord blood banking companies. The difference is that Neostem specializes in storing adult stem cells. This is a completely different field with its own set of challenges.

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