(Nov 11): Lee Chun Fun was a pre-IPO substantial investor of Vividthree Holdings, a virtual reality (VR), visual effects and computer-generated imagery studio. The company went public on Sept 25 last year. Lee’s direct interest in the company stood at 35.1 million shares, or 10.52%, following the company’s restructuring exercise, placement offer and listing on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange. But less than two months after the mandatory moratorium period of 12 months ended, she has ceased to be a substantial shareholder of the company.
On Nov 1, Lee sold 17.4 million shares in Vividthree on the open market for $2.6 million, or 15.026 cents apiece. This represented a slight premium to the stock’s closing price of 15 cents that day. Her direct interest in the company has now fallen to 16.3 million shares, or 4.89%, as a result of the disposal. She has no indirect interest in the company.
It is not immediately clear whether Lee is the same person as BRC Asia’s chief financial officer Lee Chun Fun. Vividthree’s IPO prospectus indicates that Lee is not related to any of the company’s directors and/or substantial shareholders.
Lee’s disposal comes three days before Vividthree announced that it would create and produce the immersive experience Train to Busan Horror House at Resorts World Genting, which was officially launched on Oct 31. The company secured the intellectual property rights to Train to Busan in early 2018, and previously launched a successful Train to Busan VR experience in China.
Meanwhile, iFAST Corp chairman and CEO Lim Chung Chun raised his indirect interest in the wealth management fintech company to 18.7 million shares, or 6.967%. This was the result of two open market transactions after the company posted a mixed set of results for 3QFY2019 ended Sept 30.
On Nov 1, Lim acquired 125,000 shares in iFAST through OCBC Securities for $128,000, or $1.024 apiece. This represented a slight discount to the stock’s closing price of $1.03 that day. Subsequently, on Nov 4, he acquired 20,000 shares in iFAST through OCBC Securities for $20,400, or $1.02 each. Lee’s direct interest in the company remained unchanged at 41.1 million shares, or 15.3%.
During the quarter, iFAST’s net revenue hit a record high of $16.85 million on the back of higher contributions from its B2C and B2B segments. The company’s earnings fell 5.5% y-o-y to $2.5 million as a result of the company’s higher investments in its platform capabilities, particularly that of IT.
While iFAST expects to continue upgrading its platform capabilities further, it plans to bid for a digital bank licence offered by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The IT capabilities will help in the foundation of such an operation if the company wins the licence. As a large part of this IT infrastructure is already in place, the company expects its spending on IT to moderate over the next 12 months.
Overall, it believes that growth opportunities in Asia’s wealth management industry remain “substantial”, and it is well positioned to benefit from them in the medium to long term.
