SingTel Buys HungryGoWhere For $12m
Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire the whole of GTW Holdings, which owns Singapore’s popular restaurant review site HungryGoWhere. By taking GTW under its wing of subsidiaries, SingTel will be merging the site with its lifestyle and local search site inSing.com. These two sites combined will bring in an audience of two million customers, which would make it the largest food and lifestyle audience in Singapore, according to SingTel. Going forward, SingTel will continue to form partnerships for important and unique content, including in retail, entertainment and other lifestyle needs. In addition, SingTel will add automated restaurant reservations and use the expertise to expand overseas across Asia as HungryGoWhere has an online presence in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Australia.
Significance: The combination of HungryGoWhere and inSing.com will serve more than 70 percent of the visitors who get their food and restaurant advice from mobile or online sources that would accelerate and strengthen their presence in the local market and the region.
PSL Agrees To Divest Subsidiary For $18.75m
PSL Holdings has signed a sale and purchase agreement on 22 May 2012 with JP Nelson Equipment to divest its 80 percent interest in Antar Crances Services. Antar is specialised in hiring, trading, repairs and servicing of cranes for construction and shipyards. It also provides rental and hiring services of cranes while supplying spare parts which include crane booms, crane jibs, crane hooks and accessories. PSL said that the divestment was in line with its strategy to re-organise its existing business and explore other viable business opportunities that can enhance shareholder value over the long term. PSL opined that local crane leasing industry requires large economies of scale to work on a cost effective basis and reasonable profit margins. The crane leasing business also requires large capital outlays which places stress on the firm’s balance sheet. Thus, PSL feels it is timely to exit the crane leasing business while making a gain on divestment.
Significance: PSL had in 2011 announced plans to diversify its business into coal mining. With the monetisation of assets under Antar and the unlocking of capital, PSL will be able to re-invest the proceeds into its new growth path (coal mining).
Swee Hong IPO Draws Strong Demand
Singapore Exchange debutante, Swee Hong, received strong demand from retail investors despite uncertain market conditions. In a filing with SGX, Swee Hong, a civil engineering firm, said that its initial public offering (IPO) was approximately 1.5 times oversubscribed with total valid applications amounting to 145.6 million shares versus the 97.8 million shares that were on offer. Ong Hock Leong, managing director of Swee Hong said that the management team was encouraged by the positive response to its IPO by investors who recognise the strong business prospects Swee Hong represents. The firm opines that Singapore’s robust construction demand in the next few years will underpin its growth moving forward. The company also intends to develop capabilities in modular prefabrication construction technology which could revolutionise the way buildings are constructed in Singapore and thus accelerate on-site and off-site construction programmes while boosting productivity.
Signifiance: Swee Hong’s IPO is expected to reap net proceeds of about $13.7 million. Of which the company intends to use $10 million of the acquisition of construction equipment and machinery, including equipment for macro-tunnelling works, to increase its machinery capacity and tunnelling offerings.
