SINGAPORE: Southeast Asian industrial technology buyout fund Novo Tellus Capital Partners listed its special purpose acquisition company SPAC in Singapore on Thursday January 27th, the third such IPO this month, as the country seeks to become a hub for SPAC listings.
A trio of SPAC listings in Singapore came almost a year after a frenzy of Blank-cheque firms in the United States were stalled when regulatory changes and poor returns affected investor sentiment.
Novo Tellus Alpha Acquisition raised $150 million US $111 million traded at S $4.96 versus its initial public offering IPO price of S $5 per unit. Each unit contains a Class A share and a half of a warrant exercisable at S $5.75 per share.
SPACs, or shell firms, raise money on stock markets to buy private companies, bringing businesses to markets in shorter time frames and stronger valuations.
Loke Wai San, the CEO of Novo Tellus Alpha Acquisition, said structural change in supply chain trends would benefit industrial and technology companies in the region. He said Singapore was a key venue to list SPACs.
Loke, CEO of Novo Tellus, told Reuters last week that we would be looking at companies in the range of S $500 million to S $1 billion.
He said investors had expectations of stable growth, profitability and not hyper growth and huge losses for the SPAC's target group of industrial companies.
Vertex Technology Acquisition Corp, sponsored by a unit of Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings, raised S $200 million in the city earlier this month.
A SPAC of S $170 million was backed by European asset manager Tikehau Capital and LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault.
Hong Kong is allowing SPAC listings from this year but bars participation from retail investors.
Novo Tellus' SPAC IPO was heavily oversubscribed. The IPO, which was sponsored by Novo Tellus PE Fund 2, secured 13 cornerstone investors, including Malaysia's Affin Hwang Asset Management Bhd and an indirect, fully owned subsidiary of Temasek.
Credit Suisse and DBS were the joint issuer managers and global coordinator of the IPO.