| W3 Infocomm Group Pte Ltd ["W3"] today announced that US$300m venture capital - Primepartners - invested S$3m cash for a 13% stake in the Company. STPL made a follow-on investment of S$0.5m cash at the same valuation.
Mr Hsieh Fu Hua, Primepartners' Founder and Chief Executive Officer, said "we find W3's innovative revenue model of investing in and accelerating start-ups, then bringing in big-name subsequent round investors [such as Singtel Group in the case of Airgateway Pte Ltd], an attractive way of securing good investments at low valuation and realizing valuation multiples for W3".
"We are also very comfortable with the value and commitment of W3's other shareholder, STPL, with Mr Tay Siew Choon, STPL's COO, taking active role as W3's Chairman". added Mr Hsieh, who is on the board of Capitaland Ltd, Asia's largest developer with S$20m asset, together with Mr Tay.
Andy Quak, W3's Chief Executive Officer added, "With access to the established VC channel of Primepartners and the investment and sales and operational channels of STPL, W3 is in a position to offer strong value-add to our start-up investees and scale up our investee companies into strong, viable businesses".
With Primepartners investment, Mr Hsieh has also joined W3's board as a director.
About PrimePartners Group Pte Ltd
The PrimePartners Group (The Group) was founded in early 1994 by a group of founder shareholders that included the late Ng Soo Peng, Hsieh Fu Hua, Teo Ek Tor and Quek Peck Lim. They were among the key senior executives responsible for directing Morgan Grenfell's successful expansion of investment banking, stockbroking and fund management activities in Asia. PrimePartners Group today is focused on providing financial advisory, investment management, corporate and business services across South East Asia. Its partners, both individuals and corporations, encompass a range of skills and business linkages allowing the Group to offer a comprehensive set of services from raising capital (both debt and equity, mezzanine to public offerings) to mergers and acquisitions; from specialized investor relations advisory to corporate, trust and tax advisory services; and from private equity to mezzanine investing. PrimePartners is especially active across the spectrum of financial advisory and investing services in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand with established offices in each capital city. PrimePartners set up PrimeEast Capital in 1994 to do investment banking in South East Asia and Hong Kong. In 1997 the Group, together with Banque Nationale de Paris established BNP-PrimeEast. BNP-PrimeEast changed its name to BNP Prime Peregrine in 1998 following the acquisition of the Peregrine Group's broking and corporate finance operations in Hong Kong and Greater China. PrimePartners sold its interest in BNP Prime Peregrine in late 1999 at which time the organization had grown into a major investment banking and stockbroking group in Asia employing over 600 people in East and South East Asia.
About W3 Infocomm Group Pte Ltd
W3 Infocomm Group is an investment holding company with sterling track records in investing and raising subsequent round funding for start-ups and early stage companies. With some of its portfolio companies now actively in the process of M&A and IPO, W3's investment focus has shifted from what was primarily early stage investment in infocomm and media companies to quality investments in late stage, pre-IPO and pre-trade sales companies. Shareholders of W3 and its investee companies include Temasek Holdings (Pte) Ltd [via its 100% held Greendot Capital Pte Ltd], SingTel Group, Singapore Technologies Electronics Ltd, Gemplus-EDB Smart Labs Pte Ltd and PrimePartners Group, a US$300 million venture capital fund.
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