Vertex Holdings to list 200 million Singapore dollar special purpose acquisition company

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Vertex Holdings to list 200 million Singapore dollar special purpose acquisition company

SINGAPORE - Vertex Holdings is looking to list a 200 million to 250 million Singapore dollar, $150 million to 185 million special purpose acquisition company on the Singapore Exchange, according to sources close to the matter.

Vertex is one of Southeast Asia's oldest venture capital funds, managing about $6 billion of assets globally.

The Temasek-backed venture capital firm is said to be filing its application with the SGX this month and is likely to be one of the first blank check companies to list in Singapore. Sources add that Vertex aims to list its SPAC by the end of the year.

The size of Vertex's SPAC could be a little higher than the minimum of SG $150 million set by the exchange, indicating that it may choose to merge with a slightly larger target of SG 1 billion.

Sources add that Vertex may merge the SPAC with one of its investors, of whom there are several from a global portfolio of six funds spanning the U.S. China, Israel, India and Southeast Asia.

Vertex will join roughly two or three other blank-check firms to form the first tranche of what is called Singapore Inc SPACs - all aimed at building deal flow for the SGX, which is banking on SPACs to revive its listings. The names said to be part of this first tranche include private equity firms Novo Tellus and Tikehau Capital.

Temasek subsidiary Heliconia Capital, while previously showing interest to be a SPAC sponsor, is now more keen to become a private investment in public equity sponsor, added sources.

The SGX has suffered recent lackluster trades, corporate scandals and delistings. Since the beginning of 2021, there have been just four initial public offerings on the SGX mainboard raising a total of SG $314 million.

Observers point to the rise of regional bourses in Indonesia and Thailand, which are poised to capture unicorns emerging from local markets, thanks to ample liquidity on their exchanges.

But Singapore, while home to many Southeast Asian tech giants, has already lost three unicorns to foreign exchanges: New York Stock Exchange-listed Sea, Hong Kong-listed Razer and Nasdaq-bound Grab, which is set to list by the end of this year as part of a $40 billion merger with Altimeter Acquisition.

DealStreetAsia reached out to Vertex Holdings for comment.

Nikkei owns a majority stake in the company.