Convincing companies to list in Singapore, the tiny Asian financial hub, has long been a tall order. Hopes that special-purpose acquisition companies would be able to help looked ill-timed: three listed on the city-state’s exchange in January 2022, just as its stock market peaked and the appeal of blank-cheque firms was waning. Now one of them has found a deal in what amounts to an in-house pass-the-parcel transaction.
Vertex Technology Acquisition Corp (VERT.SI) has agreed to merge with 17LIVE in a tie-up that values the biggest livestreaming platform in Taiwan and Japan at as much as S$925 million ($673 million). The SPAC is sponsored by Vertex Venture Holdings, a venture-capital firm indirectly owned by Temasek. Companies linked to Singapore’s state investor also happen to be among the target’s existing investors, as are funds affiliated with Vertex, and other institutional investors. The SPAC maintains that Temasek is not involved in the business or operational decisions of any of these entities.
Investment firms like Blackstone (BX.N)have offloaded portfolio companies to SPACs in the past – just not usually to ones they set up. Granted, Vertex Technology, the first local SPAC, was running out of time: it has to return most of the unused listing proceeds of roughly $150 million to investors early next year if they choose not to extend the window for striking a deal. Buying a company already well known to its sponsors ought, at least, to reduce the risk of making a poor acquisition – as well as bring a rare new face to Singapore Exchange, whose main board has not hosted an initial public offering since 2021. (By Anshuman Daga)
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