Author: vivian
JP Morgan Arm to invest US$ 30 million in Assetz Property Group
Global giant JP Morgan Asset Management has invested Rs 200 crore (about US$ 30 million) in Assetz Property Group, a firm that develops residential and commercial properties in Southern India.
“The capital will be given in the form of equity by JP Morgan,” said Akshay Dewani, the director of Assetz Property Group. “The money will then be used to build an 18.5 acre residential project in north Bangalore.”
With this investment, Assetz Property Group has secured about US$ 180 million for its upcoming projects.
Earlier investments include US$ 116 million from venture capital firm Equis Funds Group Pte Ltd as well as private equity (PE) that is intended for its midmarket housing vertical.
Other investors comprise of property consultant Jones Lang, LaSalle’s real estate investment arm – Segregated Funds Group, Avenue Real Estate Fund and Amplus Capital Advisors Pct Ltd.
Headquartered in Singapore, Assetz Property Group for the most part develops residential assets in Bengaluru. But the firm also has plans to set up logistics and warehouse parks on the outskirts of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Nagpur in the near future.
“We will be raising capital for logistics vertical first and plan our steps to have a 10 million square feet portfolio over the next four years,” Dewani added.
The company is diversifying into new segments and is in the process of forming commercial, industrial warehousing, and residential platforms to raise capital and expand its presence.
“We plan to have a multi-development platform as we have a good fundraising setup,” said Dewani.
Previously in March, the company had made an announcement regarding the launch of its township brand “Assetz Lifestyle”, under which it will build the group’s mid-market housing projects in the next decade.
In the next ten years, the group plans to build around 10,000 homes along the growth corridors of Bengaluru which is expected to generate a sum of around Rs 5000 crore in revenue from this business alone.
For more information, please visit http://www.assetzproperty.com/
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media
Temasek Holdings to take stake in Oxford Sciences Innovation
Singapore’s state investment fund – Temasek Holdings has become a limited partner in Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI), which develops and commercialises intellectual properties from Oxford university.
Participating through the means of capital infusion, this is Temasek Holdings’ first investment in the UK-based university fund. The financial terms of the investment were undisclosed.
This is part of a larger £230 million (about US$ 289.9 million) financing round that was announced on December 9, which has boost OSI’s capital base to almost £600 million.
The investment round had both new and existing investors, including some of Asia’s leading technology corporations and sovereign wealth funds such as Singapore’s Temasek and Oman Investment Fund, which are among the new wave of investors.
“We are very excited to be working with new shareholders from across the world, notably from Asia and continental Europe, and also grateful to our original supporters, the 10 largest of which have participated in this funding round,” said the chairman of OSI, Peter Davies.
With the new funding round, OSI’s capital base which previously stood at £350m has now expanded to £580 million (about US$ 731 million), making it the largest private university fund in the United Kingdom.
“Raising this capital reflects our confidence in the breadth and quality of opportunity available to investors to help the University of Oxford develop a world-class commercial ecosystem around its unmatched intellectual capital and heritage,” Davies add.
Founded in 2015, the formation of Oxford Science Innovation (OSI) aims to maintain the university’s position as one of the world’s leading research institution, providing capital and scaling expertise to businesses that are driven by its in-house intellectual property.
To date, the fund has backed approximately 20 spin-out startups based on the technology from university’s labs. Among its track record of developed businesses include Oxford Nanoimaging, Vaccitech and Oxford Flow.
Temasek is reshaping its holdings and bracing for lower returns after in July reporting the first decline in its portfolio in seven years. The value of assets fell 9% to US$ 242 billion in the fiscal year ended March 31, according to the firm’s annual review.
Temasek Holdings Pte, Singapore’s state-owned investment fund, said it will focus on being an active investor as it increases holdings in overseas companies.
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media
Indonesian coal producer Bumi Resources to restructure debt, paring down US$ 2 billion via Preemptive Rights offering
Indonesian coal producer PT Bumi Resources Tbk (BUMI) is looking to restructure its finance. The company plans to swap its debts for share, through raising IDR 26.9 trillion (about US$ 2 billion) through a rights offering.
The company will issue up to 29.1 billion new shares which are equivalent to 79.5 percent of its enlarged capital with Preemptive Rights (ER). These 29.1 billion shares will then be sold at about IDR 926 per share.
The transaction is expected to take place in 2017, fetching a total amount of IDR 26.9 trillion – part of the company’s efforts to restructure its US$ 4.2 billion debt.
The debt is intended to be reduced to US$ 1.6 billion, of which US$ 2 billion will be converted into shares, while the remaining will become Mandatory Convertible Bonds (MCB) or mandatory convertible bonds with a seven-years term.
Bumi Resources will use the proceeds to pay off debts to China Investment Corporation (CIC) along with eight other lenders. In an event that shareholders are reluctant to participate, the creditors will absorb all new shares issued, allowing Bumi Resources’ obligations to be converted into shares.
Later, no interests will be converted into shares of the company.
“This way, the old shareholders are given the opportunity to keep their ownership, but at a higher sum than the company’s current stock price. This is already stated in the agreement between the firm and creditors,” said finance director at Bumi Resources, Andrew Beckham, in Jakarta recently.
In the proposal, CIC would control 22.6 percent of Bumi Resources’ shares while 2016 bondholders would get 4.6 percent, and 2017 bondholders would obtain 10.6 percent. Credit Suisse would also get 3.6 percent, UBS 0.8 percent, Axis Bank 0.8 percent, Deutsche Bank 0.7 percent, and Raiffeisen Bank International 1.2 percent.
Bumi Resources primarily exports coal to China, Japan, and India. The Bakrie family-controlled firm supplies 25 percent of its coal to the domestic market and aims to boost coal production up to 100 million tonnes next year following this agreement for a debt-restructuring scheme.
The company forecast its production to increase by 5 percent more with the sales target also increasing by 7 percent in the near future, considering the surging demand for coal in the country as a result of the government’s ambitious electricity procurement programme.
Known as the most indebted coal miner in Southeast Asia, Bumi Resources has spent half the decade trying to reduce its debt.
In August, the company sold 50 percent of its stakes in unit Leap Forward Resources Ltd to two investors – Smart Alliance Ltd and Oceanpro Investments – in a US$ 90 million deal. The transaction was used to repay part of the company’s debts to Axis Bank Ltd, according to corporate secretary Dileep Srivastava.
On Friday, Bumi Resources shares increased by 0.68 percent to close at IDR 296 per share, against a 0.08 percent gain in the broader index.
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media
Singapore’s Senjo Group invests US$1.2 million in B2B startup Tjaara that is to launch in Middle East
Senjō Group, a FinTech investment firm and global payments operator, made an announcement on Thursday, that it has formed a partnership and invested US$1.2 million and an additional US$20 million trade finance in Tjaara Pte, Ltd., a Singapore-based B2B service.
Tjaara, literally translated to marketplace in Arabic has been in the research phase for nearly two years before being incorporated in August 2016 – acting as a global purchaser to unaligned wholesalers and businesses in the market as it aids the process on their behalf.
“Tjaara is a B2B service that offers product search, language translation support, ordering, logistics and finance management. We realised that a lot of smaller and medium-sized retailers were unable to navigate Mandarin-only manufacturer listings or access factory-direct prices.” Fred Then, the co-founder of Tjaara said.
The startup also negotiates, conducts quality control checks from factory to port, and even acts as an escrow service to manage the complicated buying process between Chinese manufacturers and foreign companies. It aims to create a healthy local economy and enabling competitive businesses.
Explaining the process, Fred said, “Tjaara was built to help our end-users unlock a larger variety of products and larger profit margins through economies-of-scale. Unlike typical agents, Tjaara is also able to assist with product evaluation by obtaining samples for end-users; this is possible because of our close relationship with manufacturers.”
Additionally, Tjaara also applies a group-buy concept to aggregate demands from customers to present a large consolidated order to pre-qualified manufacturers. Tjaara’s customers or Channel Partners largely consist of businesses or individuals who wish to monetize their relationships with end-users.
“It is known that Chinese wholesale e-commerce platforms like Alibaba offer lower prices for local purchases, and when non-Chinese IP addresses are detected, the price is typically inflated. This is why Tjaara will always get better pricing as all buying is done locally through our China operations. And by consolidating the orders of small wholesalers, we’ll get more bulk discounts.” Fred adds.
Presently an invite-only platform, the service is only usable by vetted customers and selected channel partners who are allocated 50 complimentary translation requests per month. Tjaara users can view translated listings or request for a search for products.
“We are extremely excited by the generous support offered by Senjō, and their faith in us,” said Fred. “The biggest plus of working with an experienced partner like Senjō is definitely their expertise in payment systems and existing global footprint and connections. This will make our lives a lot easier. We are looking forward to scaling to greater heights with their support.”
Senjō Group is an investment company specialising in global electronic payments, trade finance, and e-commerce. Headquartered in Singapore, it has regional offices in Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Luxembourg and the UK, and operations in most major markets across Asia, Europe, North American and Africa.
Senjō Group comprises five business units: Senjō Payments, Senjō Commerce, Senjō Ventures, Senjō Trading and Senjō Finance. As such, this is a complementary investment that synchronises with the firms existing business operations.
Commenting on the investment, Sam Evans, the VP and Head of Ventures of Senjō Group said that Tjaara demonstrates great potential in addressing market inefficiencies, even during less-than-ideal economic times. For even during falling global demands, Tjaara can address the means of SMEs that needs to save cost while maintaining product quality.
The soft launch of the service is slated in Q1 2017, while the plans for a full launch is scheduled in Q2 2017. The business initial market focus will be in the Middle East, or more specifically United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Egypt and North Africa.
A mobile app is also in the works to facilitate easier access.
For more information, please visit http://www.tjaara.com/
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media
Thai F&N to purchase 5.4% stake owned in Vietnamese major Vinamilk for US$500 million
Thai Fraser & Neave (F&N) has made an announcement late on Wednesday, that it has submitted tenders to purchase another 5.4 percent stake in Vietnam’s largest business, Vinamilk.
The Thai beverage firm is expected to pay at least US$500 million for the 5.4 percent ownership stake of 9 percent Vinamilk shares that Vietnam’s State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) has auctioned. SCIC is present on Vinamilk’s management board as the largest shareholder, having 45 percent of its equity.
F&N is currently already a major shareholder at Vinamilk, owning 10.95 percent. But if the deal is done successfully, the group that is currently controlled by billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi will increase the percentage of their ownership in Vinamilk to 16.35 percent.
As per Vinamilk’s disclosure, F&NBev Manufacturing and F&N Dairy Investments, two wholly owned subsidiaries of F&N, on December 7 has simultaneously registered their purchase to the Vietnamese securities commission and the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange where Vinamilk is listed as the biggest stock in terms of market capitalisation, for each acquiring 2.7 percent of the dairy company.
This is the maximum percentage each investor is generally allowed to buy in the forthcoming December 12 share auction, where Vietnam has decided to sell the first chunk of the 9 percent from the state ownership in Vinamilk.
December 12 is also the date where SCIC will conduct the public auction to sell the 130.6 million shares of the US$9 billion dairy company at the starting price of VND 144,000 per piece (about US$ 6.36). This translates into a transaction value equivalent to about US$500 million for F&N.
The method of transaction for F&N’s bids will be conducted via public auction, put through transaction and order matching on the stock exchange between December 12 and 10 January 2017, according to Vinamilk announcement.
Earlier August, Lee Meng Tat, CEO of Singapore-based F&N, has revealed to Bloomberg about Vinamilk being the potential target of the F&N Group in the ambition to expand their market share in Southeast Asia, going up against Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
Vinamilk shares concluded Wednesday, trading at VND 132,500, declining VND 1,500, that is 1.1 percent compared with the end of the session the day before.
For more information, please visit https://www.vinamilk.com.vn/en
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media