I am back with my roundup of top scoops, interviews and analysis we brought you this week.
First, our top exclusives
A merger between Grab-backed Indonesian payment firm OVO and local rival PT Espay Debit Indonesia, better known as DANA, could materialise as soon as the first quarter of 2020. A successful merger, if it takes place, is likely to make the DANA-OVO combination the top payment firm in Indonesia, ahead of Gojek’s GoPay. Read more to learn about the complex structures that may have a bearing on the proposed deal.
On the corporate M&A side, we brought you an exclusive on Indonesian conglomerate CT Corpora and private equity firm General Atlantic joining hands to enter the race for a stake in Bank Permata. The two parties are looking to acquire Standard Chartered Plc’s nearly 45 per cent stake in the Indonesian lender and have made a formal offer.
In exit news this week, Singapore-based Saratoga Capital is exploring options to exit local portfolio company FRP Products, a corrosion protection specialist. Saratoga Capital holds a majority stake amounting to 86 per cent in FRP Products, which it acquired in 2011.
Fundraising updates
UK-based Apis Partners is set to make the final close of its second fund at over $400 million over the next few weeks. The fund will target mid-market growth equity investments in financial services and technologies, technology enablers, service providers and capital markets in Africa and Asia.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s IMM Private Equity is targeting to hit a final close for its fourth fund, IMM Rosegold IV, in the first half of 2020. The firm has raised more than $1.4 billion so far from domestic as well as international investors.
In Nepal, Dolma Fund Management is on the road to raise as much as $75 million for its second private equity fund. The firm seeks to make the first close of Dolma Impact Fund II in the second quarter of 2020.
We also had this update on IFC considering a proposal to commit up to $30 million to Mekong Enterprise Fund IV, an investment vehicle managed by Vietnam-focused private equity firm Mekong Capital. The fund is seeking $200-250 million in commitments.
Bualuang Ventures, an investment firm backed by Bangkok Bank, is planning to raise $60-80 million for its second fund next year. Bualuang Ventures currently manages a $60 million fund, of which it has deployed $42 million in direct investments and capital allocation to venture capital funds.
From frontier market Myanmar, we reported that Delta Capital, with $120 million in assets under management, is actively deploying its second fund with a focus on ESG investing. The Myanmar Opportunities Fund II, which has a $70 million corpus, raised capital predominantly from development finance institutions.
In another story from Myanmar’s startup scene, Phandeeyar Accelerator, which has so far been making investments from its own balance sheet, is for the first time in talks to raise external money for its permanent capital vehicle to clock investments in early-stage tech ventures.
From Greater China this week…
We had this big scoop on Ant Financial, an affiliate of Chinese technology giant Alibaba, planning to raise about $1 billion for a new fund to expand investments in emerging markets including India and Southeast Asia. Ant Financial, as the investor behind at least eight unicorns worldwide, has so far poured money into more than 160 companies worldwide.
Chinese venture capital firm Allin Capital has closed its third RMB-denominated fund to back early and middle-stage startups in the semiconductor field.
Global logistics provider GLP has teamed up with a group of institutional investors to launch a new 15 billion yuan ($2.1 billion) fund to tap investment opportunities in stabilized, income-generating modern logistics assets.
BlueRun Ventures, a global venture capital firm with operations in the US, China, and South Korea, has collected 3.5 billion yuan ($498 million) so far this year for early-stage investments in advanced technologies.
As part of our China Deal Monitor, we brought you the round-ups spanning over a dozen VC transactions from the region this week featuring Shenzhen-headquartered computer vision platform Extreme Vision, Clover Biopharmaceuticals, tech-enabled K12 institute Aixuexi (formerly Gaosi Education Group), and Mr Zoo, an operator of indoor petting zoos.
In-depth stories this week
Despite the Southeast Asian region being awash with venture capital dollars, there is a glaring funding gap at the Series C and D stages, amounting to almost $1 billion per year, according to a report by Singapore-based PE firm Asia Partners.
Lastly, I recommend this long-form piece from Nikkei Asian Review on how SoftBank‘s next big crisis might be brewing in India.
