KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 17): UCrest Bhd, a healthcare application developer and network solutions provider, expects revenue to surge by 8 to 10 times this year, boosted by orders from Russia, Eg Kah Yee, chairman and founder, says in an interview on Jan 11.

Company has been contracted to help build a national cloud network for Russia’s public hospital system; network to help Russia government to save costs and lighten burden on nation’s healthcare system

* Current contract is to provide equipment for cloud network for 20 hospitals; Russia has about 20,000 healthcare facilities, according to Eg. 

** “It’s probably not even a drop in the ocean,” says Eg, referring to its current orders. There’s a "long way to go."

** Eg says UCrest is working with other companies to expand into other republics, without naming them.

* Current order book worth about 30m ringgit come from units of Russia Telecom Equipment Co, part of Russia’s state-owned Rostec.

* UCrest breakthrough came when Russia passed legislation to facilitate new online nationwide patient records database and telemedicine, writes Nigel Foo, analyst at CIMB in non-rated report dated Oct 18.

* UCrest posted a 3m ringgit profit in the 1Q ended August, vs 516,000 ringgit loss y/y.

** Scheduled to report 2Q results by end of January* 

Co surged 585% over past six months through Tuesday, making it best performer out of 111 companies listed on FTSE Bursa Malaysia ACE Index.

* Eg is also owner of Key Asic, a chip designer with business ties to Russian companies, which resulted in the expansion of the relationship to healthcare application.

* Co working to expand artificial intelligence capabilities of application to include diagnostics and also looking to expand further in China, Taiwan, and Singapore.