Singapore's UOB, CapBridge Build Private Capital Offering

Tom Burroughes

26 June 2019

Singapore’s to give alternative investment solutions to unlisted firms in the Asian city-state and wider Asian markets, highlighting how banks continue to target such asset classes.

This is CapBridge’s first collaboration with a Singapore bank to provide companies with such alternative financing solutions, the firms said. Besides Singapore, firms based in the following jurisdictions will be covered: China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Through its investment syndication platform, CapBridge will match UOB’s clients with anchor investors and accredited co-investors, the organisations said earlier this week.

UOB’s clients can also choose to list a portion of their equity on CapBridge’s affiliate exchange, which is Singapore’s private securities exchange platform, of which Singapore Exchange Limited is a shareholder and strategic partner.

The bank said that its clients can create a new asset class of tradeable private equities to provide their shareholders with access to financing and liquidity. This is because the buying and selling of the listed private equities can be done at any time and easily, compared with the typical lock-up period of more than five years for private equity as an asset class.

“Companies typically require different types of funding and capital structures that provide financial flexibility and liquidity to meet their needs at various growth stages. At UOB, we have been providing our corporate clients with a comprehensive suite of fundraising solutions. These include loans and bonds in the debt capital markets, initial public offerings in the equity capital markets and alternative private financing through our ecosystem partners,” Edmund Leong, head of group investment banking, UOB, said.

Johnson Chen, founder and CEO of CapBridge, said: “The private capital market is a fast-growing source of primary and secondary capital for many companies.”

CapBridge recently completed a fundraising campaign for a leading fund management company in Singapore for a listing on 1exchange. The offer was oversubscribed and the company is set to become the first private company to list its shares on a private exchange in Singapore in July 2019.

CapBridge has a Capital Markets Services License and is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.