Thailand Business Roundup
North Haven Private Equity Asia Angel recently completed a tender offer to buy a 25.63-percent stake in the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET)-listed baby-and-adult diaper maker DSG International (Thailand) Pcl (DSGT) for 1.61 billion baht.
North Haven Private Equity Asia Angel, which was formerly known as Morgan
Stanley Private Equity Asia had initially offered to buy minimum 23.46 percent of DSG shares.
This is the company’s first investment in Thailand. The company stated, ‘We believe that the Thai market overall is one of the most attractive markets with positive long-term potential. We shall continue to look for new investment opportunities in this market.’
As stated in the tender offer documents, it has the intention to propose to the board of directors of DSGT to delist the company within 12 months from the closing of the tender offer. The plan is subject to approval of the board of directors and shareholders of DSGT.
In the first six months of this year, DSGT reported total revenue of 3.573 billion baht, down 6.7 percent from the same period last year, but net profit was 46.58 million baht, up 63.9 percent year on year.
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Thai Union Group PCL, the world’s biggest producer of canned tuna, announced the purchase of a minority stake in the U.S. seafood chain Red Lobster Seafood Restaurants for $575 million as part of its plans to expand in the United States, its biggest market.
The company said it had taken a 25 percent interest in the restaurant chain, with the option to acquire an additional 24 percent through the conversion of preferred shares.
The Thai company paid $230 million for the 25 percent stake, and $345 million for the preferred shares, which are convertible to common stock within 10 years.
Thai Union is a supplier to Red Lobster, as well as Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Costco Wholesale Corp.
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InVent, the venture capital arm of Intouch Holdings, has invested in the pre-Series A financing round of Social Nation Inc, a Silicon Valley-based advertising technology startup, marking its first investment in the United States.
Index Ventures, Virtual Reality Investment Fund, Greycroft Ventures and other strategic investors also participated in the round.
According to a statement from InVent, Social Nation will use the funds to accelerate its growth to become the premier virtual reality and 360-degree video advertising and distribution platform.
The three-year-old startup, with brands “OmniVirt” and “AdsOptimal,” is a 360-degree virtual reality advertising platform for brands and publishers. It claims that AdsOptimal has delivered more than two billion impressions of advertising last year and also enabled over 100,000 publishers to monetize their websites.
Prachaya Phaisanwiphatpong, Thai co-founder and CEO of Social Nation,
said, “our VR technology helps advertisers effectively deliver their immersive 360-degree content to their target audiences through our extensive publisher network. With help from Intouch, we will be able to expand to Asean more easily, which is a very promising market for digital advertising.”
