Singapore

• Challenger Technologies (CHLG SP) has disclosed a final voluntary unconditional offer from Dymon Asia and the Loo Family at S$0.60 per share, a 7.1% premium to the previous S$0.56 offer. 
• As predicted, the offer followed the recent SGX unconditional offer playbook – a lowball offer followed by declaring the offer final after a cursory bump.
• The modest offer premium will still leave minorities aggrieved. Hitting the 90% compulsory threshold implies a minority acceptance rate of 31.3%. At the last close, the gross spread is 3.4%.

• After consumer electronics retailer Challenger Technologies (CHLG SP) announced a voluntary unconditional cash offer of S$0.56/share on the 30 May, it has closed through terms every day. 
• At a 3.1% and 4.3% to undisturbed and one-month VWAP, the Offer was low-balled. The Offeror (Dymon Asia and Challenger’s CEO Loo Leong Thye) have now bumped to S$0.60/share. 
• The price has been declared final. It is still only a 9.1% premium to undisturbed. But it is a lifetime high. 

• Most Brazilian e-commerce platforms evade taxes by treating orders as individual transactions instead of business operations, despite the 60% tax on international e-commerce shipments by companies.
• The Brazillian government plans to address this tax loophole by strengthening oversight and implementing administrative measures.
• If Sea (SE US) cannot find a viable solution to navigate this tax, there is a strong possibility that Shopee will exit the Brazilian market.

• A weekly summary of key developments across ECM and Event-Driven names tracked by us across Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Korea, India and Chinese ADRs.
• ECM developments – Amman Mineral Internasional (1416286D IJ), Tata Technologies (TATATECH IN), JD Industrials (2231713D CH) IPOs.
• Event-Driven developments – Golden Energy & Resources (GER SP), Challenger Technologies (CHLG SP), Enm Holdings (128 HK), Golden Eagle Retail (3308 HK), Metro Pacific Investments Co (MPI PM), Yashili. 

For our next Corporate Webinar, we are glad to welcome BHG Retail’s CEO, Chan Iz-Lynn.

In the upcoming webinar, Iz-Lynn will share a short company presentation after which, she will engage in a fireside chat with Smartkarma Insight Provider, Osbert Tang, CFA. The Corporate Webinar will include a live Q&A session.

The webinar will be hosted on Tuesday, 06 June 2023, 17:00 SGT/HKT.

About BHG Retail REIT

Listed on Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited, BHG Retail REIT has a diversified portfolio of six retail properties strategically located in major cities in China, namely Beijing, Chengdu, Hefei, Xining and Dalian. BHG Retail REIT’s asset portfolio consists of community focused retail properties situated in high population density areas frequented by growing middle class professionals and families. Designed as lifestyle destinations, each multi-tenanted mall features a compelling mix of shopping, dining, education and entertainment establishments.

• ZUZU Hospitality, a revenue platform provider for independent hotels, today announced an oversubscribed US$9 million (SG$12 million) Series B funding round led by SoftBank Ventures Asia, with participation from Atinum Partners and existing investors Wooshin Venture Investment, Visor Ventures and JG Digital Equity Ventures.
• The startup plans to double its hotel partner count across the region with a keen focus on India and reach an impressive milestone of 5,000 partners by the end of 2024.
• Furthermore, it also plans to make strategic investments in AI tools to improve pricing, automate guest management, and improve partner experience.

• Amili, a Singapore-based gut microbiome company, has raised an undisclosed sum from East Ventures in a new funding round.
• The fresh funds will be used for its expansion to Indonesia, focusing on addressing gut health issues specific to the local context.
• Amili’s current offerings include gut microbiome sequencing services for healthcare professionals and probiotic formulations tailored to Asian consumers. Microbiome sequencing is a method for studying bacteria to fuel research on disease protection.

• Challenger Technologies (CHLG SP) has disclosed a voluntary unconditional offer from Dymon Asia and the Loo Family at S$0.56 per share, a 1.8% premium to the undisturbed price (29 May). 
• The little to no offer premium will leave minorities aggrieved. Hitting the 90% compulsory acquisition threshold implies a minority acceptance rate of 31.3%. The offer has not been declared final.
• The offer is set to follow the recent SGX voluntary unconditional offer playbook – a lowball offer followed by declaring the offer final after a cursory bump.

• Consumer electronics retailer Challenger Technologies (CHLG SP) has announced a voluntary unconditional cash offer of S$0.56/share. The Offer price has not been declared final.
• The Offeror is led by Dymon Asia Private Equity and Challenger’s CEO Loo Leong Thye, who collectively hold 54.37%. 
• Including other Loo family members and additional irrevocables, there is a high probability Challenger breaches the public float at the conclusion of the offer and be suspended. 

• kopi-C with Heeton Holdings’ CEO: “Property development fascinates me” When Heeton Holdings’ chief executive Ivan Hoh first took over the company’s reins, he was gunning for change, ready to expand the company’s property portfolio.
• Established in 1976 and listed on Singapore Stock Exchange in September 2003, Heeton Holdings Limited is a real estate company focused on property development, investment and management, and hospitality.

• Mapletree Industrial Trust (MINT SP) is looking to raise at least S$202m (US$150m) in its primary placement.
• The proceeds will be used to partially fund its acquisition of a data centre asset in downtown Osaka, Japan, while the remainder will be funded by debt.
• In this note, we’ll run the deal through our ECM framework and comment on deal dynamics.

• Jenfi, a fintech company specialising in revenue-based financing, has raised US$6.6 million in pre-Series B funding.
• Headline Asia led the round, with participation from Monk’s Hill Ventures, ICU Ventures, Granite Oak, Korea Investment Partners & Golden Equator Capital, and Atlas Ventures. Existing early investors also participated.
• With the funding, the fintech firm plans to expand its presence in Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia by broadening its customer base while expanding into new markets across Southeast Asia.

• Only six months after its establishment, Singapore-based Locofy launched a beta of its low-code development tool in January 2022.
• It has since received over 100,000 sign-ups across 195 countries.
• Its tech helps designers automate front-end code directly from their designs and integrate them with existing workflows, leveraging AI to convert designs into coding languages to save time.

• Singapore-based insurtech startup bolttech has closed its Series B financing round at US$196 million, led by existing shareholder Japanese insurance holding company Tokio Marine.
• Other key investors include global life insurance giant MetLife through its subsidiary MetLife Next Gen Ventures, Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional, and new and existing shareholders.
• This funding takes the company’s valuation to US$1.6 billion and comes exactly seven months after Tokio Marine led the first tranche of bolttech’s Series B round.

• Grab‘s1Q2023 made for positive reading with rapid revenue growth and a quickening of progress towards profitability but the focus perplexingly seemed to be drawn to the ethereal measure of GMV. 
• The delivery segment saw the most significant GMV slowdown, impacted by a high base and seasonality but saw rapid revenue growth and record margins. Mobility remained the cash cow.
• Grab‘s profitability improved considerably in 1Q2023 across all segments, with management upgrading the outlook for FY2023 for adjusted EBITDA and maintaining its breakeven target for 4Q2023, which now looks conservative.

• S-Reit acquisitions continue with Clar’s S$218 million buy Earlier last week, CapitaLand Ascendas Reit (Clar) announced the proposed acquisition of an integrated high-specification research and development (R&D) facility and business park property from Seagate Singapore International Headquarters for a purchase consideration of S$218.2 million.
• In April, MLT announced the acquisition of six logistics assets located in Japan, and one logistics property in Sydney, Australia.