Month: December 2016
Indonesia-based reinsurer Marein to raise US$41 rights issue in 2017
Maskapai Reinsurance Indonesia (Marein), one of only four local reinsurance companies in the country, has made plans to raise US$41 million from a rights offering in 2017.
The company said it will sell up to 130 million new shares in a right issue by June 2017 in order to strengthen its existing capital.
Reinsurers provide insurance for other insurance companies, Marein along with Reasuransi Indonesia Utama, Reasuransi Nasional Indonesia, and Tugu Reasuransi Indonesia are the only four local reinsurance companies in Indonesia.
Local firms often lack capital compared to their larger foreign reinsurance peers, forcing Indonesian insurance firms to seek coverage for big insurance policies abroad.
However, when local insurance firms pay for premium overseas coverage, it will complicate government efforts to balance the country’s current account.
Hence, Financial Services Authority (OJK) has requested the four reinsurers, Marein and its rivals to increase their capacity to cover more clients.
“In order to increase the capacity, we have to raise capital,” said Marein president director Robby Loho to Jakarta Globe.
“The company is expected to reap IDR 1.5 trillion in premium income this year, with an increment of 40 percent from last year’s IND 1.07 trillion”, said Yanto J. Wibisono, Marein’s finance director.
Besides, the premium income at Marein has also reached IDR 907 billion in the first nine months this year, increasing by 29 percent from the same period in 2015. This was driven by a double-digit growth in life and general reinsurance segments this year.
Fitch Ratings, one of the big three credit rating agencies affirmed Marein’s national insurer financial strength with an A+, as well as its international IFS rating of BB back in August.
Fitch said that the rating reflects Marein’s high business concentration in catastrophe-prone Indonesia, its modest market position, and despite its long operating record, small asset size compared with some of its local and regional peers.
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media.
Singapore-based e-commerce enabler Shopmatic buys technology consulting firm 5X Ruby
Singapore-based e-commerce enabler Shopmatic has announced its acquisition of a majority stake in Taiwan-based technology consulting firm, 5X Ruby on Thursday.
According to the details of the agreement, Shopmatic has acquired 51% stake in 5X Ruby in a mixed cash-and-stock deal for an undisclosed amount. The latter’s valuation was also not disclosed.
The move on Shopmatic’s part is aimed at strengthening its platform development team, in order to provide its customers a streamlined experience backed by the latest technology stack.
“We plan on developing value-added services for our customers including inventory management service, integrate payments on the platform, aggregation, and taxation. For these services, we will be using the technology from 5X Ruby. Some of the 20-member team of the company will be working with Shopmatic’s lab to design these solutions.” Anurag Avula, the co-founder of Shopmatic said.
Founded in December 2014 by Anurag Avula, Yen Ti Lim, and Kris Chen, Shopmatic is an international e-commerce platform, launched with the intent to help anyone wanting to sell online.
In other words, it aims to help merchants and individuals manage everything that is required for them to grow their business in the virtual world, that is from assisting managing merchants to develop their own unique web-store to aiding them with insights on how to sell online.
Besides building websites, Shopmatic also helps integrate payment gateways, establish partnerships with logistics companies, and facilitate listings in marketplaces and social media. The service also includes a backend analytics platform.
On the other end, 5X Ruby has been the at the forefront of technical consultation and training. The firm has built a vibrant and growing Ruby developer community in Taiwan catering to high-tech clients from Japan, Hong Kong & Taiwan developing web and mobile applications.
The technology company in-house software Ruby on Rails is a server-side web application development format written in Ruby 5X held under the MIT License. The system acts as a model-view-controller framework which uses less code and provides default structures for a database, a web service, and web pages.
The Taiwanese firm, in turn, lies in sync with Shopmatic’s aspirations to deploy the latest technologies and simplify the process for those who intends to take their business online, without the requirement for technical knowledge.
Besides, the acquisition will also facilitate the company’s international market expansion plans, which aims to target markets outside Singapore by early 2017, particularly to strengthen its presence in other South Asian markets such as Japan.
“This acquisition will not only enable us to strengthen our stance as the leading platform that enables businesses to go online but also to scale and enter new markets at a faster pace. We welcome the 5xRuby team into the Shopmatic family and are excited about the opportunity of working with a world-class development team,” said Anurag Avula.
In 2015, Singapore-headquartered Shopmatic has launched its operations in Gurgaon and Bangalore in India. The company has also launched a mobile app, earlier last month for Indian Sellers called Go, which is an easy tool to create an e-commerce website in less than two minutes with three easy steps. Reportedly 85-90% of Shopmatic’s business comes from India.
By Vivian Foo, Unicron Media
Japan’s Outsourcing Inc acquires German Orizon Holding for US$85.2 million
Japanese Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) firm Outsourcing Inc. has announced the acquisition of German staffing company Orizon Holding for an estimated €81.6 million (about US$ 85.2 million).
Outsourcing has acquired the full stake of the business through the Japanese group’s German subsidiary OSI Holding in a move to safeguard its business operations amid a highly unpredictable and volatile market.
The closing of the transaction is expected to occur by June 30, 2017. This deal will also see an exit for private equity firm Silverfleet Capital Partners after almost ten years in portfolio.
The acquisition of Orizon Holding is part of Outsourcing’s latest plan – VISION 2020: Tackling New Frontiers, in which the Tokyo-headquartered firm aims to grow in the direction of Lehman-class environmental change.
However, the BPO firm also noted that it has been conventionally engaged in manufacturing outsourcing business and confronted volatility risks since the collapse of Lehman Bros in 2008.
Thus, with this acquisition, Outsourcing Inc. can leverage on the strategic location of Germany, one of Europe’s leading industrialized countries for the overseas expansion of their manufacturing businesses.
Besides, Orizon Holding is also the eight largest staffing company in Germany with its strengths in mechanical engineering, aviation, and medical sectors.
“Orizon surpasses its peers in profitability and is expected to achieve ongoing growth,” Outsourcing Holdings said in a statement.”This transaction will provide the group with a strong foothold to develop into the European industrial nations, including those in Eastern Europe.”
The company has kickstarted some medium-term management initiatives to scale globally into the sectors with less susceptibility of fluctuations.
The plans call for outsourcing business to convenience stores industry and the U.S. military bases in Japan, while undertaking the public services contracted to the private sectors in Australia and the UK.
In August 2016, Outsourcing Inc. has earlier strengthen its Europe footprint by acquiring British BPO business Liberata for 43 million pounds (about US$ 53.4 million).
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media
Airbnb to increase fundraising round to US$ 1 billion
Airbnb Inc has authorised the sale of an additional US$153 million in Series F shares, bringing the size of its current fundraising effort to about US$1 billion, according to Tech Crunch.
This was suggested by a new Delaware filing for Airbnb on Friday, identified by research firm CB Insights. The amount comes as an extension to their financing US$555 million round back in September 2016.
With the latest round, the filing prices the shares at US$105, which is consistent with the financing values the home-rental startup said at about US$30 billion.
Details of the equity are still unknown and it is not clear which investors might be getting these shares or if the round is even confirmed.
Dating back to its founding in 2008, Airbnb has raised more than US$3 billion in capital. Previous Airbnb backers include Google Capital, Technology Crossover Ventures, GGV Capital and Sequoia Capital.
The San Francisco-based company has secured a US$1 billion debt facility this year from banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc, Bank of America Corp and Morgan Stanley.
The company also used some of its capital to buy back shares from Morgan Stanley this year.
Airbnb does not have a comment on the filing.
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media
Practo makes fifth acquisition, buys analytics startup Enlightiks for US$13.9 million
Practo Technologies Pvt. Ltd, a web-based clinic management software developer, has today announced the acquisition of US-based advanced analytics firm Enlightiks Inc. and its Indian operations in a cash-and-stock deal.
The deal, which details the acquisition of Bengaluru-based Enlightiks Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd, an advanced analytics platform offering business intelligence solutions to healthcare enterprises, is valued at Rs 92 crore (about US$13.9 million).
Post acquisition, the entire 50 member team of Enlightiks will join Practo and form part of an analytics business unit within the company. The unit is said to be headed by Enlightiks co-founder and CEO, Vamsi Chandra Kasivajjala.
This is Practo 5th acquisition till date and its 3rd in the enterprise space. In 2015, the company has acquired four companies – hospital information management solution provider Insta Health for US$12 million, hospital appointment scheduling firm Qikwell, a web and app-based fitness management platform FithoWellness as well as product outsourcing firm Genii.
The primary offering for Enlightiks comes through its proprietary business intelligence and predictive analytics platform – Querent which provides actionable insights for healthcare providers using complex mathematical, statistical, computational and cognitive models.
“This brings Practo closer to its vision of simplifying healthcare by providing end-to-end solutions for the entire eco-system,” said Shashank ND, the Founder & CEO of Practo. “With Querent, we will be able to help CXOs make their enterprises run more efficiently which should improve the overall quality of care while making it more affordable.”
Enligtiks was co-founded in 2012 by Shilpa Peri, Venkatesh Pagidimarri, Dr. Bas Nair and Vamsi Chandra Kasivajjala. The founding team was later joined by Shaunak Joshi and Sunil Kondala.
Their business intelligent solution Querent is capable of providing accurate predictions for key business metrics which will aid enterprises in proactive decision-making that can help create a positive impact on short to medium term business actions.
Besides, the platform also has an ability to read both structured and unstructured information and apply advanced machine learning and deep learning techniques to uncover hidden insights. Querent also facilitates visual interpretation of the collected information in order to generate useful insights for healthcare enterprises across various departments including operations, finance, quality, pricing, marketing, customer management and risk assessment.
More than 200 healthcare centers including hospitals and clinics across the nation are currently using this platform. The list of clients includes names such as Apollo Sugar Clinics Ltd, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Inamdar Multispecialty Hospital, Fernandez Hospitals Pvt Ltd, Eye-Q Vision Pvt Ltd, Sparsh Sandor Nephrocare Services Pvt Ltd, Ramesh Hospitals and more.
While founded in 2008 by Shashank ND and Abhinav Lal, Practo is one of the most well-funded healthcare startups in the country whereby the company has more than US$120 million in funds.
The company raised $90 million in August 2015 through a Series C funding led by Chinese media and technology conglomerate Tencent Holdings Pvt Ltd. It raised $30 million in a Series B round from Sequoia India and Matrix Partners in February 2015. While in 2012, Practo had raised $4.6 million from Sequoia Capital in a Series A funding round.
The firm helps patients book appointments with doctors online and also enables doctors in primary clinics and hospitals to manage patient records under a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. Practo also facilitates online delivery of medicines, e-consultation and beauty and wellness products.
Commenting on the M&A, co-founder of Enlightiks, Vamsi said “Enlightiks is thrilled to join Practo. We share the same passion for democratising healthcare access for billions of people where business intelligence and analytics are critical.”
“We chose Practo so that we can collaborate and work towards offering superior, comprehensive and integrated solutions for healthcare providers. I look forward to working with Shashank and the Practo team in realising our shared vision of transforming healthcare,” he adds.
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media