Daily Briefing: Aslan Pharma raised US$42m in US IPO; Can Venture's stock make a comeback?

And here are 14 Belt and Road deals that Singapore firms inked in a trade meeting in Zhejiang.

From PropertyGuru:

Companies from Singapore inked no less than 14 agreements with mainland Chinese firms at a trade meeting in Zhejiang, which is aimed at deepening the city-state’s commitment to the Belt and Road initiative.

"Some of the biggest Singaporean developers were in attendance at the 13th Singapore-Zhejiang Economic and Trade Council (SZETC) gathering of high-level stakeholders in various sectors from real estate and logistics to e-commerce.

Singapore’s Senior Minister of State (SMS) for Culture, Community and Youth & Trade and Industry Sim Ann, who cochaired the meeting with Zhejiang Vice Governor Zhu Congjiu, called the 14 MOUs (memorandums of understanding) a 'testament to Singapore’s continued strong interest' in Zhejiang."

Read more here.

From Deal Street Asia:

According to a Nasdaq report, Singapore-based biotech firm Aslan Pharmaceuticals successfully ended its initial public offering (IPO) in the US and raised US$42m.

"The Taiwan Stock Exchange-listed clinical-stage biopharma firm raised the amount after pricing 6 million American Depository Shares at US$7.03 each, down from its original plan of offering 7.5 million.

The ADSs started trading on 4 May 2018 on the Nasdaq Global Market under the trading symbol ASLN. Aslan said it will use the net proceeds from the offering to continue to invest in the clinical development of its product candidates. It targets diseases that are both highly prevalent in Asia and orphan indications in the United States and Europe."

Read more here.

From Bloomberg Finance:

After taking the hit from anonymous short seller reports and weak earnings by its customers, Bloomberg reported that Venture Corporation has gained 9.7% after some anonymous bloggers swayed the stock.

"This time, a group calling themselves the 'True Valiant Warriors' came out in defense of the company. Their report and the blog it was published on have since been taken down. There was also a buyback: The company repurchased 109,000 shares from the market, it said in a filing Monday.

Despite all the drama, Nicholas Teo, a trading strategist at KGI Securities (Singapore) Pte., sounds a note of caution about being too caught up in the stock’s movements. It’s important to look beyond the daily swings, he said.

'Venture as a company has done really well, it’s steady,' Teo said."

Read more here.