WinKing Studios, one of the IPO aspirants, describes itself as an art outsourcing and game development studio. Led by the executive chairman and CEO Johnny Jan, its main operations are located in China, with a smaller presence in Taiwan, where Jan is from. Singapore, meanwhile, functions as its corporate base.
The company is backed by Acer Gaming, a separately listed subsidiary of Acer, one of Taiwan’s leading computing brands. Before the proposed IPO, Acer Gaming held just over half the shares, with Jan holding another 8.9%.
Acer Gaming presumably plays a bigger role than just providing early funding. It is a strategic investor too, given its reach in the wider gaming industry. As indicated in WinKing’s draft prospectus, in 2022, Acer Gaming secured in Taiwan the agent rights of Sony PlayStation 5 and agency rights of Logitech’s racing simulation equipment, Astro’s gaming headset microphone, Sega’s games, and the gaming accessories of Hori, a leading Japanese brand.
Instead of using the planned listing to cash out, Acer Gaming will take up more shares as one of the cornerstone investors, according to the draft prospectus.
According to WinKing, citing an industry report, between 2017 and 2022, the global gaming industry revenue grew at a CAGR of 6.5% with the pace picking up to 8.9% between 2022 and 2027.
With more than two decades of experience, WinKing provides end-to-end art sourcing and game development for titles running on platforms ranging from consoles and PCs to mobile phones and handheld devices. Besides helping with creative work, the company develops and publishes games of its own and a few from other developers.
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“While retaining our regional presence, we have cultivated a global customer base and the services we render are available to our base of customers located across the globe,” the company says.
So far, WinKing has developed nine games and completed over 1,400 art outsourcing and 25 game development projects. According to the draft prospectus, notable titles with WinKing’s involvement include New World, developed and published by Amazon Games; Madden NFL 22, by EA Tiburon/Electronic Arts; Assassin’s Creed Valhalla by Ubisoft and Identity V by NetEase, which is listed as the company’s single largest customer in 1QFY2023 ended March, generating 13% of its total revenue.
Between FY2021 and FY2022, contract revenue increased to US$24.5 million ($33.7 million) from US$23.7 million. However, earnings dropped from US$3.1 million to US$1.04 million due to lower margins. In the more recent 1QFY2023, revenue reached US$6.4 million, up from US$6.1 million in 1QFY2022. Earnings dipped to US$560,000 from US$629,000.
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The draft prospectus warns investors that WinKing operates in a competitive and fragmented industry, with different players of varying sizes offering different ranges of outsourcing, game development and game publishing services.
Citing an industry report, WinKing notes that partly due to the fragmented nature of the market, the industry’s leading players are expected to gradually outperform smaller competitors as they can provide a more comprehensive suite of services to clients. But bigger studios control a more than proportionate share of total industry revenue: 38% generate less than US$1 million in sales yearly while 15% generate more than US$10 million.
Citing another report, the company says that last year, it was the third-largest art sourcing provider in Asia and fourth in the world, with smaller competitors from Japan, Hungary and the US. Virtuos, another Singapore-based art outsourcing provider, and China-based Original Force, according to the company, are the first and second-largest players in this space, reporting revenues of US$44.6 million and US$39.8 million respectively compared to WinKing Studios’ US$22.1 million.
With proceeds to be raised from the proposed IPO, WinKing plans to grow its operations further, including establishing subsidiaries and offices, expanding existing offices and supporting infrastructure, and exploring acquisitions. It also plans to use the IPO funds raised to explore AI capabilities in its art outsourcing segment.
In its draft prospectus, the company notes that its operations are mainly located in China through various local subsidiaries and the country will continue to be a significant operational base. “Any adverse changes in economic conditions in China, the policies of China’s government or Chinese laws, regulations and rules could have a material and adverse effect on the overall economic growth of China,” says WinKing.
Getting a lift from renewable space
Sheffield Green provides manpower for the renewable energy industry, which includes onshore and offshore wind, solar, green and hydrogen industries. Besides its Singapore headquarters, it also has offices in Tokyo and Taipei.
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The company is controlled by CEO, chairman and executive director Kee Boo Chye, who owns more than 80% of the company ahead of its proposed IPO. Kee, who has more than two decades of experience providing manpower for various industries, carved out the renewable energy portion in 2021 and named the entity Sheffield Green to better focus on this segment’s growth.
As described in the prospectus, Kee named the company Sheffield after his alma mater, the University of Sheffield, where he received his engineering degree and MBA.
Sheffield Green supplies workers in different functions ranging from management, technical personnel, offshore crew, survey engineers, surveyors, and stewards to welders. In addition, Sheffield Green provides human resources and administrative services ranging from staff and payroll funding and administration to visa and work permit applications.
The company aims to grow by expanding into new markets with significant renewable energy-related activities and beefing up its presence in existing ones. Sheffield Green is looking for “opportunistic” acquisitions, joint ventures or alliances with other human resource services providers and marketing agents.
As part of its overall expansion, it is also eyeing expansion into complementary offerings. For example, it is open to working with industry trainers as well as immigration and travel logistics providers. Other new businesses planned include ship chandelling and catering business in Taiwan.
Sheffield Green sees a key growth driver in the growing wind energy industry, which, in turn, is part of the wider transition towards renewable energy sources.
The International Energy Agency predicts that from 2022 to 2027, renewable energy capacity will surpass the total added between 2001 and 2021. Offshore wind capacity to be added is also expected to increase by about 23% annually between 2022 and 2027.
According to the International Renewable Energy Agency 2022 Annual Review and Global Wind Energy Council, worldwide employment in the renewable energy industry, already at 12.7 million in 2021, will reach 38.2 million by 2030. Out of this, nearly two-thirds of the jobs will be in Asia, with China being the largest, followed by the European Union and Brazil, the US and India. It adds that the drive towards renewable energy capacity expansion will inevitably increase demand for renewable energy employment.
Sheffield Green says global wind energy employment in 2021 stood at 1.4 million jobs. This number is projected to surge to 3.3 million by 2025 as more wind farms are constructed. The trend is shifting towards training and hiring local workers rather than relying on imports to meet this demand.”In this regard, the group is strategically poised to take advantage of this shift as the group intends to venture into other technical services, which include providing training and development of renewable energy personnel,” says Sheffield Green.
For the nine months ended March 31, the company reported earnings of US$2.46 million, versus a loss of US$975 in the year earlier. Revenue in the same period surged from US$4.7 million to US$19 million. The company is planning a dividend payout ratio of 30% for the current FY2023 and FY2024.
Prospectus lodged since June
After mulling a spin-off listing in Singapore since 2021, LYC Medicare, a subsidiary of Malaysia-listed LYC Healthcare, on June 30 lodged its preliminary prospectus for a Catalist listing. Typically, a company would take about two to four weeks to list on the stock exchange from the lodgement date. LYC Medicare, which will be 51% held by the parent assuming the IPO is completed, has yet to launch.
As described in its draft prospectus, LYC Medicare has two main business segments. The first is in clinical and speciality services, and the second is in nutraceutical supplements. Under its portfolio of clinical and speciality services sits T&T Medical Group and HC Orthopedic Surgery, both of whom were fully acquired by the company last year, following a prior 51% acquisition in May 2020. T&T Medical, headed by Dr Ting Choon Meng, provides treatment for chronic diseases, while HC Orthopedic offers care for bone and age-related conditions.
Meanwhile, three brands sit within its nutraceutical arm under a wholly owned entity called LYC Nutrihealth — ingredients supplier Aqurate, supplement registration company Microbiome, and Clinical Nutrition Ingredients (CNI). While the former two brands are 70% owned by LYC Nutrihealth, the 100% acquisition of CNI will come after the listing by tapping the funds raised.
In FY2022, LYC Medicare reported earnings of $3 million, up from $712,000 recorded in the preceding FY2021. Revenue in the same period increased from $3.3 million to more than $16 million. LYC explains that the higher revenue was driven by its clinical and specialist services segment, which saw more patients, and a new contribution of $5 million from its nutraceutical supplements and ingredients segment.
The company is led by executive director and managing director Dr Henry Chan. Key management executives include T&T’s managing director Ting and Steven Ong, general manager of its nutraceutical ingredients business.
