Daily Briefing: Singapore Life plans expansion after Aviva deal; Lightspeed opens Singapore office

And PrimePartners, Fundnel commence trading on Hg Exchange.

From Reuters:

Singapore Life, an insurance platform which agreed a $2.71b (US$2b) deal for the Singapore business of insurer Aviva, plans to tap into Southeast Asia to expand more and will seek to list in the city-state, its founder and CEO said.

Singapore Life’s transaction to acquire $11.8b (US$8.7 billion) of London-listed Aviva’s Singapore assets will boost its $800m (US$589.69m) in assets and catapult it into one of the leading players in the wealthy city-state.

“Our ambition is to expand beyond just the boundaries of insurance into broader financial services and to do that not only in Singapore but across Southeast Asia,” said Walter de Oude, who set up the company, known as Singlife, in 2017 after heading HSBC’s Singapore insurance business.

Singlife will get access to Aviva’s 1.5 million customers, a big pool of financial advisers and a range of new products. Under the deal, private equity firm TPG came in as a new investor and will have a 35% stake in the combined business. Aviva will keep 25% with another 20% going to Japan’s Sumitomo Life Insurance Company.

Read more here. 

From e27:

Lightspeed Venture Partners has announced the launch of its Southeast Asia operations with an office in Singapore.

In the region, the early-stage VC firm will actively engage with ventures in sectors, such as e-commerce, fintech, edutech, and SaaS mainly in Singapore and Indonesia. It will deploy capital from its global funds.

In April this year, Lightspeed raised (US$4b) for its three global funds.

The firm’s Southeast Asia team includes Akshay Bhushan (Partner), Bejul Somaia (Partner), Pinn Lawjindakul (Vice President) and Marsha Sugana ( Senior Investment Associate).

Read more here.  

From e27:

Private exchange licensed and regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore Hg Exchange (HGX) has announced that its founding members PhillipCapital, PrimePartners and Fundnel have commenced trading private company shares on it.

The exchange enables its members and their clients, comprising both investors and issuers, to gain global liquidity and access opportunities in funds, high-growth companies and other alternative private assets.

Through a consortium strategy, HGX automatically unites 500,000 investors online. As per a statement, this will spur a synergistic effect for all parties by increasing deal velocity in a timely, cost-efficient manner and introducing liquidity to the ecosystem.

In addition to this announcement, HGX has also appointed Richard Teng, former Chief Regulatory Officer of the Singapore Exchange, as its Chairman.

Read more here.