Category: Business
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
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
Calcutta Angel Network and Appliyifi back startup Vehico for providing automobile IoT solutions
Bengaluru-based Vehico that develop an Internet of Things (IoT) solution for the automobile industry has raised an undisclosed amount of angel investment from Calcutta Angel Network and Applyifi, an online platform for startup investments.
The fresh capital was raised in late October and will be used to strengthen the company’s product, scale up their technology infrastructure and for talent acquisition, to expand the team, Abhishek Chatterjee, the Founder and CEO of Vehico said.
Founded in early 2015, Vehico is owned and operated by Metaiot Technologies Ptv. Ltd. Before launching Vehico, Abhishek Chatterjee who graduated from the University of Calcutta has worked with IBM and Tata Steel.
Its flagship product, Vehico Fleet is a telematics-based fleet management and analytics solution which facilitates distance transmission of information that will enable automobile industry and users to remotely control and manage data in vehicles.
It offers fleet owners and car rental companies with real-time insights on the vehicle health as well as the driver behavioral patterns. This information data will allow the user to save money on fuel and vehicle maintenance which will avoid potential accidents.
“Using our predictive analytics enabled dashboard, they can plan, budget, forecast and allocate resources beforehand thus improving the overall efficiency,” Chatterjee said.
The company also offers Vehico Link, a hardware device that similarly collects and monitors the vehicle’s performance data ranging from driver to its surroundings. But the difference lies in part that it runs optimised edge analytics algorithms which will provide a precision point driver performance information.
“Within the next 2 quarters, we are coming up with advanced hardware, product improvements, and an API-based solution which anyone can integrate with their current solution. Our vision behind Vehico is to build a connected transportation ecosystem bringing better safety, security, connectivity and efficiency in the transportation industry,” Chatterjee said.
Vehico had received a small, first tranche of seed investment from the same angels in June this year.
About Vehico:
Vehico develops Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for the automobile industry. The company provides a one-stop solution to all fleet optimization problems through Vehico Fleet, an advanced fleet intelligence and data analytics suite designed for intelligent vehicle tracking, driver performance analytics, smart vehicle diagnostics and problem alerts.
For more information, please visit http://www.vehi-co.com/
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media