The week that went by saw DealStreetAsia release a new report in partnership with Enterprise Singapore. The report, which tracked venture funding activities in ASEAN 6 in 2023, found that Singapore cemented its lead as the top fundraising hub in the region amid a global funding downturn.
Let’s move onto the other top developments of the week.
LP-GP updates
The Indonesia Investment Authority (INA), the country’s sovereign wealth fund, has partnered with fund manager Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) to identify and back infrastructure investment opportunities in the country, especially in the areas of energy, transportation, digital infrastructure, and utilities.
The Indonesian wealth fund is also looking to double down on its private lending business, which is helmed by Christopher S Ganis, the former head of Indonesia for APAC private credit at asset manager BlackRock.
The biggest hurdle facing Southeast Asian fund managers isn’t fundraising. It is exits, said Huai Fong Chew, Regional Lead, Private Equity funds, East Asia & the Pacific at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), in an interview.
Southeast Asia-focused Dymon Asia Private Equity is understood to be in the market to raise capital for its fourth fund.
Singapore-based Blauwpark Partners, a single-family office for multiple families, has earmarked $30-40 million in commitments this year to its private equity (PE) capital budget.
Fullerton Fund Management is the latest Temasek-affiliated asset manager to double down on Asia’s decarbonisation agenda in a market that could expand up to $5 trillion by 2030 as the region chases net zero over the next decades.
The New York State Common Retirement Fund (NYSCRF), the third largest public pension plan in the US, has disclosed a $150 million commitment to the recently closed opportunities vehicle of Singapore- and US-based venture capital (VC) firm B Capital.
GGV Capital Asia has rebranded itself as Granite Asia. The move comes several months after its global parent spun off its Asian arm due to growing pressure in the US to limit investments in Chinese technology.
MDI Ventures, the corporate VC arm of Indonesian state-owned telecom player Telkom, is planning to intensify its focus on niche sectors aligned to its impact and environment, social, and governance (ESG) investment approach.
PAG-backed Nuvama Group’s asset management division is currently on the road to raise as much as $479 million for a crossover fund, per a Bloomberg report.
US development bank International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has approved a $10-million commitment to the latest fund of India-focused VC firm Iron Pillar.
Healthcare-focused VC firm HealthQuad, which recently cashed out profitably from the Asian Institute of Nephrology and Urology, is positive about exit opportunities in India despite macro market headwinds.
Gaming and Web3-focused VC firm Bitkraft Ventures has launched a $275-million venture fund that will allocate 10-15% for startups in Asia.
Former JP Morgan investment banker Ryan Holsheimer, who founded Australia-based VC firm Admiralty Capital last year, will personally contribute 25% of the debut fund’s corpus. The rest of it will be sourced from his network of high-net-worth individuals and family offices in Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.
Deals counter
Japanese firms Mitsui & Co and Rohto Pharmaceutical have agreed to jointly acquire Singapore-based traditional Chinese medicines firm Eu Yan Sang International in a deal that values the latter at S$800 million ($593 million).
Malaysian telco Axiata Group will dispose of its entire holding in Edotco Myanmar for $150 million in a move signalling its exit from the telco tower business in Myanmar.
Budget hotel network operator RedDoorz has issued shares worth $28.2 million to convertible noteholders, including Asia Partners, Jungle Ventures, Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund, and SIG Venture Capital, per regulatory filings.
An affiliate of Affinity Equity Partners has divested its 17.1% stake in Indonesian-listed herbal medicine and food company PT Sido Muncul Herbal Medicine and Pharmaceutical Industry (SIDO) for 3.7 trillion rupiah ($233.2 million).
Hong Kong-listed infertility specialist Jinxin Fertility Group will acquire a stake in its Southeast Asian peer PT Morula Indonesia, a subsidiary of Northstar Group-backed PT Bundamedik. IDX-listed Bundamedik is a private women- and children-focused healthcare group.
An investment vehicle linked to CVC Capital Partners has disposed of its entire 5% stake in Vietnam’s fourth biggest non-state owned commercial lender, Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), for $220 million.
A group of investors led by PE firm PAG is investing $8.3 billion for a 60% stake in Chinese property giant Dalian Wanda‘s mall unit.
The holding company of Chinese chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) is in the process of raising nearly 10.8 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) in a new round of equity financing even as it faces potential sanctions by the Biden administration amid China’s intensifying tech rivalry with the US.
Trustar Capital, the PE arm of Chinese alternative investment firm CITIC Capital, has acquired cough medicine maker Guilong Pharmaceutical.
PE-VC investments in Indian startups surpassed the billion-dollar mark for the first time this year in March, touching $1.06 billion.
General Atlantic has made an unspecified investment in Indian hospital chain operator Cygnus Medicare. The deal has provided a full exit to Cygnus’s early investors, including Eight Roads, Somerset Indus Capital and Evolvence Capital. DealStreetAsia had first written about the deal in October 2023.
Muthoot Microfin, one of the leading microfinance institutions in India, has secured a term loan of $75 million in the form of external commercial borrowings from lenders, including Standard Chartered and Doha Bank.
RG Stone, a chain of urology and laparoscopy hospitals in India, has initiated talks with a host of PE firms, including Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia, Multiples Asset Management and InvAscent, to raise capital.
SoftBank-backed electric vehicle maker Ola Electric has raised about $50 million via non-convertible debentures from EvolutionX, per media reports.
Asia Partners, a Singapore-headquartered growth equity investment firm, has anchored a $30-million investment in Indian SaaS platform SingleInterface.
Earnings updates
Southeast Asian last-mile logistics provider Ninja Van reported a 30.6% jump in net losses for FY2023 to S$326.8 million as it struggled to rein in costs, according to regulatory filings.
PT Global Digital Niaga Tbk – the parent company of the Indonesian e-commerce player Blibli, online travel agency Tiket.com, and supermarket chain Ranch Market – narrowed its losses by 33% in 2023 despite a dip in revenues.
Southeast Asian healthcare service provider Health Management International Group (HMI Group) reported higher revenue for the financial year ended June 30, 2023, but its profit fell 44% due to soaring costs.
Indonesia’s open finance API platform Ayoconnect more than tripled its losses in 2022 to $10.75 million as its expenses grew nearly threefold, according to its regulatory filings.
Deep dives
The ongoing funding winter has taken its toll on many players in Indonesia’s fledgling tech ecosystem, resulting in a wave of shutdowns, business pivots and mass layoffs in recent months. As startups adopt survival tactics and focus on profitability metrics, the pressing need for corporate governance and accountability frameworks has come to the fore, according to several industry observers.
Despite a pullback by US money from China due to continued geopolitical tensions, global investors continue to view the Asian country as a market of opportunities. Many believe the way to capture its future growth will not be through US dollars—like it was in the last two decades—but in local currency amid Beijing’s seriousness to boost the domestic capital markets and homegrown technologies.
Home to over 140 proptech startups at its peak in 2020-21, Vietnam is now reeling from a stagnation in the local real estate market which has forced some startups to shut down while forcing others to tweak their business models to stay afloat. Concerns about debt and falling demand have spread through the sector, with 1,160 real estate companies dissolving in the first 11 months of 2023, according to official data.
