Category: Mergers & Acquisitions

Deutsche Wealth and Asset Management buys two logistics facilities from Propertylink for US$56 million

Deutsche Asset Management (Deutsche AM) on Monday has acquired two logistics facilities from PropertyLink, a listed Australian real estate investment trust, in an off-market transaction on behalf of a German institutional client for US$56.07 million.

In Deutsche AM’s mission to increase its sector exposure to logistics in Asia Pacific, the acquisition follows the recent purchase of GLP Narita, a grade A modern logistics warehouse in Tokyo last December.

The two acquired facilities comprised of two single story warehouses including administration offices and parking, which are located at 45 Fulton Drive, Derrimut in Melbourn, and 50-80 Southlink Street, Parkinson in Brisbane respectively. Additionally, the Derrimut site occupies over 34,000 square meters, that is 4,000 square meters larger than the Parkinson site.

“We are pleased to add Rand Transport’s facilities to our portfolio,” said Victoria Sharpe, the Head of Real Estate, Asia Pacific for Deutsche Asset Management.

“With good quality, cold storage accommodation in prime Australian locations in small supply, over the long term we expect the assets to deliver stable cash flows with low volatility in line with the strategy for our investors,” she added.

Originally designed for an anchor tenant, Rand Transport which is a leading service provider of refrigerated interstate transport and warehouse in Australia, the cold logistics facilities designed in 2010, were purpose-built to connect to the local port, airport, and railway stations in both Melbourne and Brisbane via major expressways and road networks.

Having invested in real estate assets for more than 40 years, Deutsche AM is part of the Alternatives platform, which business has more than 410 employees around the world and US$54.4 billion in assets under management as of September 30, 2016.

By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media

Chinese B2B e-commerce platform Huimin to acquire Sequoia-backed Beequick

Based in Beijing, Huimin, a B2B-ecommerce platform that focuses on small-scale supermarkets has recently acquired a controlling stake in online-to-offline (O2O) platform Beequick.

This comes as an alternative for Beequick as the company is reportedly cutting staff last summer due to the lack of additional funding to keep the cash-burning business going. The firm also gave one of their two office floors in Beijing.

Following the acquisition by Huimin, which has raised RMB1.3 billion (about US$192 million) from domestic RMB funds in November, Beequick will survive as an independent unit under Huimin.

However, the deal also marks an official end to Beequick’s aspiration for an initial public offering (IPO), which appeared plausible in 2015 when it secured a US$750 million Series C financing round backed by Hillhouse, Tiantu, and Sequoia.

Founded in 2014, Beequick is an online-to-offline platform which provides under-an-hour delivery service for fresh produce and other convenient store products like snacks, beverages, liquor, and coffee etc after they purchase it on their mobile app.

Having over 100,000 convenient stores on its platform, it makes use of the large network of local convenient stores in China, reaching out to customers from the nearest convenient stores in town.

After the merger, Huimin and Beequick said there will be various opportunities to pursue cost saving and create synergies. The two companies also plan to consolidate their supply chain resources and enhance cooperation on convenience store operations.

Besides, with this agreement, Beequick can also focus more on their C-side user services, as well as to further enhance the speed and quality of their distribution services along with brand and marketing.

Established in 2013, Huimin currently operates 450,000 neighborhood stores across China. These modern stores offer standardized products and services, as well as computer and phone recharging facilities and umbrella deposit.

Previously, China Innovation Investment (Beijing) Ltd., China United SME Guarantee Corporation and Western Securities had invested RMB1.3 billion (US$192 million) in Huimin, with participation from existing investors Morningside Ventures, Zheshang Venture Capital and GP Capital.

By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media

Standard Chartered Private Equity acquires Chinese beauty center operator Siyanli

Standard Chartered Private Equity (SCPE), Standard Charted Bank’s private equity arm, has led a consortium to acquire a majority stake in Chinese beauty care service provider Shanghai Siyanli Industrial Co., Ltd. in a leveraged buy-out transaction.

Following the deal which values Siyanli at US$224 million, Standard Charted Private Equity unit which was previously a minority shareholder in the spa and beauty operator will now acquire a controlling interest pro-acquisition.

“We are privileged to partner with Siyanli and its management team, who are determined to continue building a successful beauty care brand that caters to the future needs of China customers. We look forward to supporting the team to accelerate its growth and presence in China,” said Zhu Wei, the managing director of Standard Chartered Private Equity.

Founded in 1996, Siyanli is a high-end beauty care service provider in China, operating under the brand “Si Yan Li” which has been established as a recognisable beauty care brands and reports a strong brand funnel across the cities it operates in.

Siyanli operates 160 beauty centers in dozens of cities in China via self-owned and franchised stores, where consumers can receive skin care and anti-aging treatments, as well as massage and spa services. It claims to have over 100,000 paid members.

Post-acquisition, Zhu Wei will also take up the role of chairman at Siyanli following the buyout deal.

“As a partner to Siyanli, SCPE, with the joint effort from the investment consortium, we hope that we can add to the management expertise and avail the Standard Charted Bank global network – to support Siyanli’s growth plan and strategic expansion,” SCPE said.

SCPE manages about US$5 billion, including the Standard Charted’s own funds and money from external investors that include Goldman Sachs Group. As at November 2016, it owned stakes in about 80 companies across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. These range from a Nigerian energy producer to a Jordanian chicken company.

By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media

Singaporean iFashion acquires lifestyle marketplace Megafash for US$2.23 million

Singaporean online fashion and lifestyle platform iFashion Group, announced today that it has acquired independent designer brands marketplace Megafash for S$3.15 million (about US$2.23 million).

This cash and shares deal follows iFashion’s previous purchase of lifestyle and fashion brands INVADE, Dressabelle and Nose, making Megafash its fourth acquisition to date – an effort to strengthen iFashion’s portfolio and pave the way for iFashion’s listing slated in April or May this year.

Following this acquisition, iFashion will also appoint Jeremy Khoo, the CEO, and founder of Dressabelle, an O2O fashion marketplace that it has acquired last year for US$5.5 million as its new CEO to drive the company to the next level.

Launched in December 2015 by Lau Kin-Wai and Douglas Gan, Megafash initially commenced as a fashion-focused platform, but later extended its services to include lifestyle and designer’s products. At present, iFashion has a strong presence in both the physical and e-commerce platform, with 7 outlets operating in more than 15,000 square feet of retail space.

Megafash has also positioned itself as a curated marketplace, working with more than 2,000 Indie brands internationally, in addition to a 30 percent of their in-store brands being sold exclusively through the Megafash platform which currently operates in Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand. In 2016, Megafash’s annualised revenue was reported to be S$8 million (about US$5.7 million).

“It’s an exciting time for us at Megafash. The brand has grown significantly, from 3 stores in 2015 to 7 stores currently. In times of economic downtown, we are pleased to say that our revenue grew five times from 2015. Megafash continues to grow as Singapore’s leading lifestyle marketplace. In fact, in December we received as many as 2,000 orders a day.” Jiawen Ngeow, the CEO AND Co-founder of Megafash said.

Backed by Fatfish Internet Group, Sovereign Capital, and Fashion DK Group among some, iFashion’s offers mentorship, marketing, logistics, warehousing, sales, fulfillment, and financial services for online entrepreneurs who aim to grow their respective businesses and widen their user base.

“Our acquisition of Megafash completes our line-up of brands for our IPO. We believe that the acquisition strengthens the iFashion group by extending our offerings from mainly fashion products to lifestyle. In the recent months, iFashion has seen continued growth and change, including the appointment of our new CEO. We look forward to an exciting time ahead of us, and we are thankful for the support,” said Jeneen Goh, the Corporate Affairs Vice President of iFashion Group.

As part of the expansion plans, Megafash is looking to expand operations overseas and to double its retail outlets in Singapore.

By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media

Razer acquires Nextbit, the maker of cloud-based smartphone Robin

Razer, an American gaming company originally based in Singapore, has recently acquired the majority assets of Nextbit Systems Inc. in order to enter the smartphone industry.

Although financial details of the transaction, which has closed in January, were not disclosed, Razer has bought most of the assets of Nextbit and will bring the management and employees of Nextbit onboard.

“Nextbit is one of the most exciting companies in the mobile space,” says Razer’s co-founder and CEO Min-Liang Tan. “Razer has a track record of disrupting industries where our technology and ability to design and innovate have allowed us to dominate categories with longstanding incumbents.”

“With the talent that Nextbit brings to Razer,” Tan further adds, “We can look forward to unleashing more disruption and growing our business in new areas.”

Founded in 2013 by early Android Veterans Tom Moss and Mike Chan, Nextbit is the company that produces the Indie smartphone known as Robin. Built around a cloud-based platform, Robin specialises in the seamless integration of Android OS whereby it would automatically store data on the cloud.

Different from other third-party cloud services like G-Drive and OneDrive, Robin will store only the data which is not frequently used, while automatically placing it to the local storage once the data is being frequently accessed.

In September 2015, the company launched a Kickstarter and soon reached its US$500,000 goal, after which it announced the Robin cloud phone. In May 2016, the phone was launched in India at Rs 19,999 with 100GB cloud storage space.

Post-acquisition, Nextbit will operate as a standalone business unit under its own management and apart from the ongoing business of its parent company. Additionally, Nextbit will continue with product support and software updates for its Robin smartphone.

“In order to reach a wider audience and continue our mission, we decided to join with a larger brand,” says Tom Moss, the Co-founder and CEO of Nextbit. “We’re lucky to have found a company in Razer that shares our value of pushing the boundaries of what our devices can do.”

This also marks Razer’s second acquisition in three months, with audio legends THX, a company of whom they have held a long standing partnership with, joining the Razer family back in October last year.

By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media

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