When Lee Meng Chuan opened his first drugstore, Big Pharmacy, in his 20s, his ambition was fairly modest: make enough money to improve his family’s finances.
Two decades later, the 45-year-old pharmacist-turned-entrepreneur has built Malaysia’s biggest chain of dispensaries with 668 outlets and is preparing to take Big Caring Group Bhd. public in an initial public offering worth as much as RM2.3bil on Nov. 19.
Lee says he is now looking beyond the listing as Malaysia still has plenty of room for growth as demand rises with an ageing population.
"There is still a lot of untapped market,” Lee, also group chief executive officer, said in an interview Monday at Big Caring’s headquarters in Klang, outside Kuala Lumpur. "We are still young, very hungry, very confident, and still very bullish,” he added, referring to himself and his wife, Lim Sin Yin, who co-founded Big Caring and serves as its executive director.
Big Caring is tapping a Malaysian healthcare market that is drawing more capital and attracting bigger bets from investors. Sunway Healthcare Holdings Bhd. raised about RM3.3bil earlier this year in Malaysia’s biggest IPO in nine years, including over-allotment option. Meanwhile, pharmacy chains are expanding as demand for medicines and health products rises.
For Lee, the journey started in 2006 after brief stints as a pharmacist at a government hospital and as a medical sales representative. The eldest son of a night-market vendor, he said business had always appealed to him as a way to improve his family’s finances.
"I always wanted to do business until it is very big, but I didn’t expect it to happen so fast,” Lee said, sitting alongside his wife.
For years, though, expansion was relatively slow. Big Pharmacy had just 12 stores when Lee bought loss-making RedCap Pharmacy Sdn. in 2018, adding 22 outlets in one shot. His team returned the business to profitability within six months, he said.
The deal also brought private equity firm Creador Sdn. into Big Caring as a shareholder through a share swap, giving Lee his first close look at how a larger company was run. "It was like getting a Masters in Business Administration course for two to three years,” he said.
That became a turning point. Big Caring began using acquisitions alongside new store openings to build scale, culminating in the purchase of Caring Pharmacy Group from 7-Eleven Malaysia Holdings Bhd
. in late 2023. The deal added 256 outlets and eventually gave the enlarged group its current name.
Big Caring has also pushed beyond the pharmacy counter. It bought medical-products distributor Medispec from state-owned private equity firm Ekuiti Nasional Bhd. in 2025 and now has manufacturing and distribution operations, a digital-health app, and a business supplying medical products to hospitals. Lee describes the group as an integrated healthcare company rather than simply a pharmacy chain.
The IPO will give it more financial firepower to keep expanding. Big Caring plans to use most of the proceeds from the new shares it is issuing to repay borrowings, much of which were taken on for the Caring acquisition, while RM30mil is earmarked for a new distribution center. Lower debt could also give the company more flexibility for future acquisitions, Lee said.
The listing will also mark a significant sell-down for Creador. Its investment vehicle Iris Pallida Sdn. is jettisoning 863.7 million shares and could offload more through the over-allotment option, cutting Creador’s stake from 33.7% to as little as 16.3%. At the indicative price, the sale could be worth about RM1.18bil. The deal would also be the biggest Creador-backed listing to date.
Lee and Lim, meanwhile, will remain firmly invested in the company. Their holding vehicle Uptown Paradise Sdn. will retain a 34.4% interest after selling about 374.7 million shares, while both will continue to own shares directly. For the financial year ended June 30, the company’s net profit rose 57% to RM191.6mil. Revenue was up 18% to RM4.02bil.
Now Lee is also looking outside Malaysia. Big Caring has agreed to acquire 96% of Singapore-based Yeap Medical Supplies Pte., a medical-goods wholesaler that he sees as a foothold for further expansion across the border.
"I always want to bring our brand overseas,” Lee said. "I want to make Malaysia proud.” - Bloomberg
