China's Wise Road in advanced talks to buy Singapore's Innovalues - sources

By Kane Wu and Yantoultra Ngui

HONG KONG/SINGAPORE, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Chinese private equity firm Wise Road Capital is in advanced talks to buy Singapore's Innovalues Holdings from Northstar Group, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.

A deal could be struck as early as this month if negotiations go well, the sources said, adding that talks were ongoing and could change.

Singapore-headquartered private equity firm Northstar was aiming for a sale that could value the precision machine parts maker at over S$500 million ($377 million), Reuters reported in February.

The firm has since hired boutique investment bank Rippledot Capital to advise on the sale, said the sources, who declined to be named as the information was confidential.

The financial terms Wise Road is offering were not immediately clear.

Wise Road and Northstar declined to comment. Innovalues and Rippledot did not respond to requests for comment.

The sale comes at time of growing interest among Chinese firms to expand in Southeast Asia.

In July, Chinese electronics parts manufacturer Victory Giant Technology Huizhou announced the acquisition of Singapore's printed circuit board maker MFS Technology for up to $460 million.

Northstar acquired Innovalues via a takeover offer in 2016 that valued the company then at S$331.4 million. Innovalues was delisted a year later following the buyout.

Innovalues manufactures precision machine parts including automotive components, printer rollers and mechanical devices, according to its website.

The Singapore-headquartered company has manufacturing facilities in China, Malaysia and Thailand and counts Volkswagen and Xerox among its customers, its website shows.

Founded in 2016, Beijing-based Wise Road invests in semiconductor and other high-tech industries, according to its website.

Its portfolio consists of Switzerland-based industrial pressure sensors maker Huba Control and Singapore-headquartered semiconductor assembly and testing group UTAC, its website shows.

($1 = 1.3535 Singapore dollars) (Reporting by Kane Wu in Hong Kong and Yantoultra Ngui in Singapore Additional reporting by Roxanne Liu in Beijing Editing by Mark Potter)