South Korea-headquartered Hanwha Investment & Securities will invest $4 million in Singaporean private capital raising platform CapBridge to facilitate the growth of private market ecosystem in Southeast Asia and South Korea, according to an announcement.
Hanwha Investment & Securities, a part of business conglomerate Hanwha Group, provides services in areas of asset management, brokerage and acquisition of stocks, bonds and derivatives.
Founded in 1952, Hanwha Group’s businesses span across sectors from retail to financial services.
“We look forward to further building out the private markets ecosystem and offering more private markets opportunities to companies and investors in South Korea,” said CapBridge founder and chief executive Johnson Chen said in a statement. “Together with Hanwha, we will also work on developing more innovative financial services and products for the global private markets.”
Echoing the same sentiment, Kwon Hee-baek, CEO at Hanwha Investment & Securities, added: “We will actively collaborate with CapBridge and the private securities platform 1exchange (1X), to introduce private markets opportunities to our customers across the region.”
CapBridge’s private capital platform 1exchange (“1X”) is Singapore’s first and only private securities exchange, regulated by Monetary Authority of Singapore. Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX) is a shareholder in the entity.
1X enables companies to access capital via private markets, giving them the liquidity pathway with private listing on the platform. The platform helps companies create and list tradeable equities, which in turn can be acquired and sold by investors with no lock-up period. Investors, who typically seek higher-than-average returns from private equity firms, can also tap opportunities on CapBridge’s platform.
Earlier this year, CapBridge told DealStreetAsia that the company expects to double its investment offerings to $2 billion, to serve roughly 100 clients by the end of this year. The platform offered $900 million investment offerings last year.
Hanwha Investment & Securities recently made headlines when it acquired a 90.05 per cent stake in Vietnam-based HFT Securities for 5 billion won ($4.3 million). The company seems to be looking at expanding its operations in Asia. In August 2018, Hanwha Asset Management invested $400 million in Vietnamese diversified firm Vingroup.
