Three little bigs: Here are the most notable trade sales recently

They’re from the insurance, dairy, and retail markets.

Takeover plays were popular in recent weeks, but the market was also replete with trade sales, with several companies selling part or significant chunks of their businesses/assets to acquirers and realising substantial gains in the process, a report by DMG said.

Some of the more prominent trade sales in recent days include SHC Asia's sale of its insurance business to ERGO, where it sold SHC Insurance Pte Ltd, to ERGO Insurance Group for $112 million. SHC is dangling the payment of a special dividend of at least 30% of the sales proceeds to shareholders upon the closure of the deal.

Meanwhile, Etika has obtained shareholders’ approval to sell its dairy and packaging business to Asahi for a handsome price of US$329 million, intending to pay part of the proceeds to shareholders while retaining the balance to grow its remaining businesses.

Lastly, Second Chance CEO Mohamed Salleh has inked a deal to sell 45 of his retail properties to a retail fund that plans to list on SGX. The cash proceeds will largely be used to pay down debts and reward shareh
olders with a small dividend. CEO Salleh has a good track record of deploying capital smartly to grow shareholders’ net worth.

Here’s more:

The issue at hand is: can the companies deploy the unlocked capital wisely and find ways to fill the earnings void and grow shareholders’ wealth further? If there are no better ways to deploy the cash, returning them back to shareholders is not a bad option.

The sale proceeds generated flushed the companies’ coffers with cash, but raise the issue of how to redeploy the capital to rebuild the earnings base. In many cases, management is promising to share some of the bounty with shareholders in the form of special dividends.

If you've been wondering whether SBR could work for your company — yes, probably.

A lot of the companies we partner with started as readers. They'd been following our coverage for a while, saw their own customers and competitors in it, and eventually asked the obvious question: could we do something with you? The answer is usually yes. The shape of it depends on what you're trying to do.

The options are broader than most people assume — thought leadership articles, sponsored content, industry summits across Southeast Asia, regional awards programmes, podcasts, and media placements in print and digital. Some partners use one channel; most use a mix. We figure out the right combination by starting with your brief, not with our rate card.

So if the question has been on your mind, here's the easy way to ask it.

We'll tell you honestly whether we can help, and how. It's a better use of everyone's time.

Book a meeting

| Or download the media kit (PDF)

240,000 senior readers quarterly in print Top 1,700 Singapore companies reached

7 markets across Southeast Asia