Latest news with #Netherlands-incorporated
Business Times
5 days ago
- Business
- Business Times
Stocks to watch: Singtel, Sinarmas Land, Cordlife, Q&M Dental Group, Grand Venture Tech, PSC, Procurri Corp
[SINGAPORE] The following companies saw new developments that may affect trading of their securities on Friday (Jul 11): Singtel : The local telecommunications giant's technology services arm, NCS, will invest S$130 million over the next three years to further its artificial intelligence (AI) development across the Asia-Pacific region. Its investments include the development of an AI suite, six major technological partnerships and developing an AI-enabled workforce. NCS currently has over 1,000 professionals certified across major cloud platforms including AWS, Google, Microsoft and Nvidia. Shares in Singtel closed 1.3 per cent or S$0.05 higher at S$4.01 on Thursday, before the news. Sinarmas Land: The property developer said on Friday that the offeror aiming to privatise it has exercised its right to compulsorily acquire all shares of shareholders who have not accepted the offer. Following this, the Widjaja family-controlled Lyon Investments will own all Sinarmas Land shares and will delist the company from the mainboard of the Singapore Exchange at a date and time to be announced. The counter has been suspended from trading since Jun 3, 2025, after the privatisation offer closed with Lyon Investments' shareholding standing at a 98.65 per cent. Cordlife : The private cord-blood bank said in bourse filing on Thursday that it will offer enhanced support to its customers who were affected by the November 2023 discovery of its damaged storage tanks. This includes a five-year extension to their cord-blood storage – until their children turn 26 years old – at no additional cost. The extension begins when the customer's existing contract expires. Its shares closed at S$0.005 or 1.9 per cent lower at S$0.26, before the announcement. Q&M Dental Group : The company on Thursday issued S$130 million worth of notes priced at 3.95 per cent under its S$500 million multicurrency debt issuance programme. The group said it has received in-principle approval from the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading for the listing and quotation of the notes, which are due in 2028 and will list on the bourse on Friday. The counter ended on Thursday unchanged at S$0.43. Grand Venture Technology: The precision engineering solutions company is moving to be privatised by Aalberts Advanced Mechatronics at S$0.94 a share, it said on Thursday. The Netherlands-incorporated firm is proposing to acquire all ordinary shares in Grand Venture's issued and paid-up share capital, which totals some 339.3 million shares worth S$318.9 million. Shareholders who collectively hold 64.24 per cent of Grand Venture's total shares have given the offeror irrevocable undertakings to vote in favour of the scheme. Shares of Grand Venture closed on Wednesday at S$0.955, up by 1.1 per cent or S$0.01, before the company called for a trading halt on Thursday morning. PSC Corporation : A mandatory offer by local tycoon Sam Goi has been made on Thursday to buy the remaining shares that he does not already own of fast-moving consumer goods wholesaler PSC at S$0.40 apiece. This comes after he spent S$25.2 million on 63 million shares to raise his stake to 43.38 per cent. The offer represents a premium of 7.8 per cent over the volume weighted average price of S$0.371 in the past one-month period, according to a bourse filing by UOB Kay Hian on his behalf. The counter fell S$0.01, or 2.4 per cent, to close at S$0.40, before the announcement. Procurri Corp : The IT solutions provider on Thursday said it received in-principle approval from the Singapore Exchange for its proposed delisting. This comes as its parent company Exeo Global Asset Holdings on Apr 28 proposed to acquire all shares in its issued share capital at S$0.32 apiece. The counter finished on Thursday flat at S$0.31.
Business Times
6 days ago
- Business
- Business Times
Dutch firm moves to privatise Grand Venture Technology at S$0.94 per share
[SINGAPORE] A Netherlands-incorporated firm is looking to privatise precision engineering solutions company Grand Venture Technology at S$0.94 a share, both companies said on Thursday (Jul 10). The offeror is proposing to acquire all ordinary shares in Grand Venture's issued and paid-up share capital, which totals some 339.3 million shares worth S$318.9 million. Shareholders who collectively hold 64.24 per cent of Grand Venture's total shares have given the offeror irrevocable undertakings to vote in favour of the scheme, the companies said in a joint statement. They include the company's executive deputy chairman who owns a 15.37 per cent stake, the chief executive officer and chief operating officer who each have a 3.55 per cent stake, and NT SPV 12, the subsidiary of a private equity fund, which has a 26.68 per cent stake. The offeror, Aalberts Advanced Mechatronics, is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Aalberts, which is listed on Euronext Amsterdam. The unit is part of the group's semiconductor business segment. It intends to privatise and delist Grand Venture from the Singapore Exchange should the scheme succeed, as this will allow for greater control and flexibility in managing the company and optimising resources. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up To be passed, the scheme requires approvals representing at least 75 per cent of the value of shares held by shareholders present and voting, in person or by proxy, at the scheme meeting. Scheme consideration The offer is an opportunity for shareholders to realise their investments at a premium over market prices, both companies noted. This is as the scheme consideration represents a premium of 11.9 per cent over Grand Venture's share price of S$0.84 on the company's last undisturbed trading day on May 30, 2025 – before it announced on Jun 1 that it had entered confidential discussions relating to a possible transaction involving its shares. It is a premium of 17.4 per cent, 25.5 per cent, 20.7 per cent, and 27.9 per cent over the volume-weighted average price (VWAP) per share for the one, three, six and 12-month periods, respectively, as well as a premium of 37.7 per cent and 42 per cent over the VWAP per share for the two and three-year periods, respectively, up to and including May 30. It is also 241.8 per cent above Grand Venture's initial public offering price of S$0.275 on Jan 23, 2019, and 140.1 per cent over the audited net asset value per share of S$0.3915 as at Dec 31, 2024. The companies said that, as the trading volume of Grand Venture's shares has been 'relatively low' such that shareholders may not have 'sufficient opportunity to efficiently exit their investments', the scheme provides them the option to realise their investments without incurring brokerage or other trading costs. The offer is also a 'strategic opportunity' for the offeror to enter the South-east Asia semiconductor market by leveraging Grand Venture's production capabilities, they added. 'This acquisition would provide an opportunity for the company and offeror to capitalise on each other's complementary semiconductor engineering capabilities and technologies, domain knowledge and supply chains, potentially leading to productivity improvements and certain cost-efficiencies,' they said. The offeror views Grand Venture as a potential growth platform as the complementary supply chain networks of both companies could allow their customers to benefit from a 'more comprehensive suite of solutions', the companies noted. 'Access to each other's existing and new customers... could offer incremental market access and consolidation of selected business development efforts which may result in improved market penetration.' Shares of Grand Venture closed on Wednesday at S$0.955, up by 1.1 per cent or S$0.01, before the company called for a trading halt on Thursday morning.
Business Mayor
03-05-2025
- Business
- Business Mayor
Activist Fivespan has a stake in Qiagen. Here are 3 levers to boost the company's growth and improve value
Business: Qiagen NV is a holding company based in the Netherlands. The company provides 'Sample to Insight' solutions that transform biological samples into molecular insights. These solutions integrate sample and assay technologies, bioinformatics and automation systems. Its sample technologies are used for isolating and preparing deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), ribonucleic acid (RNA) and proteins from blood or other liquids, tissue, plants or other materials. Its assay technologies make these biomolecules visible for analysis, such as identifying the genetic information of a pathogen or a gene mutation in a tumor. Its bioinformatics solutions interpret data to provide actionable insights. Qiagen's automation platforms based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR), next-generation sequencing (NGS) and other technologies tie these together in molecular testing workflows from 'Sample to Insight.' Stock Market Value: $9.32B ($43.13 per share) Ownership: n/a Average Cost: n/a Activist Commentary: Fivespan Partners, LP is a San Francisco-based investment firm founded by Dylan Haggart and Sarah Coyne. Prior to Fivespan, Haggart and Coyne were partners at ValueAct Capital and most of the investment team is from ValueAct. Fivespan, named after the unique five-stone arched bridge in Haggart's hometown, views itself as a bridge between the market and companies. The firm prefers behind-the-scenes, collaborative and amicable activism, but it would resort to a proxy fight if it had no other choice. We believe that the firm would look for board seats in situations where it thinks it could add real value, but we do not expect Fivespan to pursue board representation as often as ValueAct does (i.e, roughly 50% of core portfolio positions). Haggart certainly has experience as a public company director. He served as a director of Seagate (2018 to the present) and Fiserv (2022 to 2024), at which he has delivered stellar returns over his tenures of 44.45% and 64.68%, respectively, versus 17.36% and 4.98% for the Russell 2000. Additionally, Haggart was an advisor to Seagate going back as far as 2016, over which time the company returned about 222%. Fivespan looks for high quality, idiosyncratic businesses with good, strategic assets. The firm does not advocate for the sale of its portfolio companies as a primary activist strategy, but like companies that people want to own. Accordingly, many of the firm's activist campaigns could end with a sale of the company, providing two paths to shareholder value. The fund is a drawdown structure that holds investments for at least three to five years, aims to have six to eight investments at a time and averages $100 million to $300 million in each investment. What's happening Fivespan Partners has built a position in Qiagen NV and has engaged in conversations with management. Behind the scenes Qiagen is a Netherlands-incorporated life sciences tools firm, dual-listed in the U.S. and Germany. The company provides sample technologies to isolate and process DNA, RNA and proteins; assay technologies to prepare these biomolecules for analysis; and automation solutions to bring these processes together. The company has two primary end markets from which it derives a balanced share of its revenue: Molecular Diagnostics (health-care providers) and Life Sciences (pharma/biotech research and other lab applications). It operates in an extremely attractive and growing industry with high returns on invested capital (ROIC) and margins. Qiagen specifically enjoys a leading market position, has a great brand reputation and favorably derives about 90% of its sales from recurring consumables revenue, with the remainder from the sale of its instruments and related services, a razor-razorblade model. Despite its dual-listing and European heritage, Qiagen's chairman and CEO are based in the U.S., and it generated 52% of its FY24 sales in North America, 32% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and 16% in Asia. Fivespan looks for high quality, idiosyncratic businesses with good, strategic assets, and Qiagen fits this thesis nicely – a high-quality health-care business in a growing industry with secular tailwinds. However, despite having a respected name and a strong market position, the company has struggled to create shareholder value post-Covid, delivering 1-, 3-, and 5-year returns of 1%, -6%, and 1%, respectively. While peers trade at around 15 times EV/EBITDA, and leaders like Danaher 20 times, Qiagen currently trades at around 13 times. This contrasts with the stock historically trading at a significant multiple to peers. Management has done the hard things right: investing in R&D, listening to the customers, and protecting the company's industry-leading brand, growing its topline at a 5.3% compound annual growth rate from 2019 to 2024. Now there is an opportunity to grow even faster and in a more focused manner. In an attempt to empire-build, Qiagen has lost sight of the core business, investing a lot in the diagnostics business and other ventures when the life sciences business has a superior return on invested capital. There are three levers to create shareholder value here. First, management should invest in and around its core business to accelerate growth. Moreover, they should not keep their plan a secret but communicate it better to the market. Second, Qiagen can be run a lot tighter, leaving room for margin expansion. Currently running at a 25% operating margin, a more disciplined approach could achieve operating margins upward of 30%. Third, Qiagen's balance sheet could be optimized. Most of its peers have far more leverage and should, due to the recurring nature of the business, yet the company has $1.15 billion of cash and short-term investments, $1.39 billion of debt and no good acquisition targets on the horizon. By levering up, Qiagen could fund additional investments in its core business and buy back some of its own stock at attractive prices ahead of growth and margin improvements. It is not often that there are opportunities for both revenue growth and margin expansion at the same time. When you have a situation like that, it certainly makes sense to buy back your own shares ahead of it. Based on its activist philosophies, we would expect that Fivespan has had a position in Qiagen for some time and has been trying to work with management behind the scenes. The firm is a quiet investor and does not publicize its positions (i.e., this is one of six current positions and the only one known publicly). We think the company may not be playing as amicably as Fivespan. An indication of this is that, perhaps in response to Fivespan's engagement, the company recently pre-announced a beat for its Q1 results and raised expectations regarding its margins, targeting above 30% for the year and over 31% ahead of its 2028 timeline. Qiagen also put out a press release describing its product pipeline, nothing new per se, but a clear sea change in terms of its management of investor communications and proactive strategic planning. There are several ways this can go. Management can agree to embrace Fivespan, who is not advocating for any real controversial actions – growth and margin improvement, the same thing management wants. Management can ignore but placate the investor by taking actions consistent with the plan that results in shareholder appreciation. Or management can ignore the firm and continue down the same road with a flat stock price performance. Given that we do not expect that Fivespan will aggressively pursue a board seat here, we think the first option is preferable, the second is tolerable and the third is unacceptable. Often the tone of an activist campaign depends not on the activist, but the response of the company. This scenario could be a perfect example of that. Read More Op-ed: Here are some stocks to consider for a warming world As mentioned before, Fivespan appreciates businesses with several paths to shareholder value, one of them being strategic transactions. Qiagen is a highly attractive asset. In fact, pre-Covid, the company held discussions with several suitors regarding a potential transaction. In 2020, they agreed to an improved offer of 43 euros per share from Thermo Fisher Scientific, but the deal ultimately collapsed after Thermo failed to reach the two-thirds tender offer threshold, in part due to a Covid-induced run-up in the share price and vocal shareholders like Davidson Kempner coming out against the deal. Today, the business is just as strong, if not stronger, and FY25 EPS is expected to come in higher than it was in 2020. A sale is never Fivespan's first choice when making an investment. The firm will focus on the operational and allocation improvements available to create shareholder value but evaluate that against any potential acquisition offer the company may receive and advocate for what it thinks is best for shareholders. With strategic and respected assets – and with the stock trading slightly below the previous offer price from five years ago – an unsolicited offer for the company is not outside of the realm of possibility. Ken Squire is the founder and president of 13D Monitor, an institutional research service on shareholder activism, and the founder and portfolio manager of the 13D Activist Fund, a mutual fund that invests in a portfolio of activist 13D investments.
CNBC
03-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Activist Fivespan has a stake in Qiagen. Here are 3 levers to boost the company's growth and improve value
Business: Qiagen NV is a holding company based in the Netherlands. The company provides "Sample to Insight" solutions that transform biological samples into molecular insights. These solutions integrate sample and assay technologies, bioinformatics and automation systems. Its sample technologies are used for isolating and preparing deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), ribonucleic acid (RNA) and proteins from blood or other liquids, tissue, plants or other materials. Its assay technologies make these biomolecules visible for analysis, such as identifying the genetic information of a pathogen or a gene mutation in a tumor. Its bioinformatics solutions interpret data to provide actionable insights. Qiagen's automation platforms based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR), next-generation sequencing (NGS) and other technologies tie these together in molecular testing workflows from "Sample to Insight." Stock Market Value: $9.32B ($43.13 per share) Ownership: n/a Average Cost: n/a Activist Commentary: Fivespan Partners, LP is a San Francisco-based investment firm founded by Dylan Haggart and Sarah Coyne. Prior to Fivespan, Haggart and Coyne were partners at ValueAct Capital and most of the investment team is from ValueAct. Fivespan, named after the unique five-stone arched bridge in Haggart's hometown, views itself as a bridge between the market and companies. The firm prefers behind-the-scenes, collaborative and amicable activism, but it would resort to a proxy fight if it had no other choice. We believe that the firm would look for board seats in situations where it thinks it could add real value, but we do not expect Fivespan to pursue board representation as often as ValueAct does (i.e, roughly 50% of core portfolio positions). Haggart certainly has experience as a public company director. He served as a director of Seagate (2018 to the present) and Fiserv (2022 to 2024), at which he has delivered stellar returns over his tenures of 44.45% and 64.68%, respectively, versus 17.36% and 4.98% for the Russell 2000. Additionally, Haggart was an advisor to Seagate going back as far as 2016, over which time the company returned about 222%. Fivespan looks for high quality, idiosyncratic businesses with good, strategic assets. The firm does not advocate for the sale of its portfolio companies as a primary activist strategy, but like companies that people want to own. Accordingly, many of the firm's activist campaigns could end with a sale of the company, providing two paths to shareholder value. The fund is a drawdown structure that holds investments for at least three to five years, aims to have six to eight investments at a time and averages $100 million to $300 million in each investment. Fivespan Partners has built a position in Qiagen NV and has engaged in conversations with management. Qiagen is a Netherlands-incorporated life sciences tools firm, dual-listed in the U.S. and Germany. The company provides sample technologies to isolate and process DNA, RNA and proteins; assay technologies to prepare these biomolecules for analysis; and automation solutions to bring these processes together. The company has two primary end markets from which it derives a balanced share of its revenue: Molecular Diagnostics (health-care providers) and Life Sciences (pharma/biotech research and other lab applications). It operates in an extremely attractive and growing industry with high returns on invested capital (ROIC) and margins. Qiagen specifically enjoys a leading market position, has a great brand reputation and favorably derives about 90% of its sales from recurring consumables revenue, with the remainder from the sale of its instruments and related services, a razor-razorblade model. Despite its dual-listing and European heritage, Qiagen's chairman and CEO are based in the U.S., and it generated 52% of its FY24 sales in North America, 32% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and 16% in Asia. Fivespan looks for high quality, idiosyncratic businesses with good, strategic assets, and Qiagen fits this thesis nicely – a high-quality health-care business in a growing industry with secular tailwinds. However, despite having a respected name and a strong market position, the company has struggled to create shareholder value post-Covid, delivering 1-, 3-, and 5-year returns of 1%, -6%, and 1%, respectively. While peers trade at around 15 times EV/EBITDA, and leaders like Danaher 20 times, Qiagen currently trades at around 13 times. This contrasts with the stock historically trading at a significant multiple to peers. Management has done the hard things right: investing in R&D, listening to the customers, and protecting the company's industry-leading brand, growing its topline at a 5.3% compound annual growth rate from 2019 to 2024. Now there is an opportunity to grow even faster and in a more focused manner. In an attempt to empire-build, Qiagen has lost sight of the core business, investing a lot in the diagnostics business and other ventures when the life sciences business has a superior return on invested capital. There are three levers to create shareholder value here. First, management should invest in and around its core business to accelerate growth. Moreover, they should not keep their plan a secret but communicate it better to the market. Second, Qiagen can be run a lot tighter, leaving room for margin expansion. Currently running at a 25% operating margin, a more disciplined approach could achieve operating margins upward of 30%. Third, Qiagen's balance sheet could be optimized. Most of its peers have far more leverage and should, due to the recurring nature of the business, yet the company has $1.15 billion of cash and short-term investments, $1.39 billion of debt and no good acquisition targets on the horizon. By levering up, Qiagen could fund additional investments in its core business and buy back some of its own stock at attractive prices ahead of growth and margin improvements. It is not often that there are opportunities for both revenue growth and margin expansion at the same time. When you have a situation like that, it certainly makes sense to buy back your own shares ahead of it. Based on its activist philosophies, we would expect that Fivespan has had a position in Qiagen for some time and has been trying to work with management behind the scenes. The firm is a quiet investor and does not publicize its positions (i.e., this is one of six current positions and the only one known publicly). We think the company may not be playing as amicably as Fivespan. An indication of this is that, perhaps in response to Fivespan's engagement, the company recently pre-announced a beat for its Q1 results and raised expectations regarding its margins, targeting above 30% for the year and over 31% ahead of its 2028 timeline. Qiagen also put out a press release describing its product pipeline, nothing new per se, but a clear sea change in terms of its management of investor communications and proactive strategic planning. There are several ways this can go. Management can agree to embrace Fivespan, who is not advocating for any real controversial actions – growth and margin improvement, the same thing management wants. Management can ignore but placate the investor by taking actions consistent with the plan that results in shareholder appreciation. Or management can ignore the firm and continue down the same road with a flat stock price performance. Given that we do not expect that Fivespan will aggressively pursue a board seat here, we think the first option is preferable, the second is tolerable and the third is unacceptable. Often the tone of an activist campaign depends not on the activist, but the response of the company. This scenario could be a perfect example of that. As mentioned before, Fivespan appreciates businesses with several paths to shareholder value, one of them being strategic transactions. Qiagen is a highly attractive asset. In fact, pre-Covid, the company held discussions with several suitors regarding a potential transaction. In 2020, they agreed to an improved offer of 43 euros per share from Thermo Fisher Scientific, but the deal ultimately collapsed after Thermo failed to reach the two-thirds tender offer threshold, in part due to a Covid-induced run-up in the share price and vocal shareholders like Davidson Kempner coming out against the deal. Today, the business is just as strong, if not stronger, and FY25 EPS is expected to come in higher than it was in 2020. A sale is never Fivespan's first choice when making an investment. The firm will focus on the operational and allocation improvements available to create shareholder value but evaluate that against any potential acquisition offer the company may receive and advocate for what it thinks is best for shareholders. With strategic and respected assets – and with the stock trading slightly below the previous offer price from five years ago – an unsolicited offer for the company is not outside of the realm of possibility.
