OREANDA-NEWS. Mitsui & Co. said that it will open a living-donor liver transplant clinic in Singapore in May in cooperation with one of the leading experts in the field.

The move is intended to increase the value of a local medical business owned in part by Mitsui. The trading giant has a roughly 20% stake in IHH Healthcare Bhd, Asia's largest hospital group.

Mitsui will contribute 49% of the clinic's capital and partner International Frontier Medical Support, a Kobe-based international exchange and treatment organization, will provide 51%. World-renowned liver transplant authority and Kyoto University professor emeritus Koichi Tanaka is one of the group's leaders. Investment amounts were not disclosed.

Two Japanese doctors at International Frontier who have received training from Tanaka will work permanently at the clinic to perform operations on patients such as infants with biliary atresia and people with severe hepatitis. They are expected to initially perform 10-30 operations annually.