While Novo Tellus has largely cashed out, Loke remains the chairman of AEM and has helped build up a strong institutional following. These include securing Temasek as its single-largest investor with a stake of 12.5% while attracting other institutional managers such as Malaysia’s EPF and UK fund manager abrdn to become substantial shareholders as well.
One of the proposals bandied about is for funds managed by the state or government-linked entities to play a more active role. One company that would never say it has not benefitted from such support is chip-tester AEM Holdings (SGX:AWX
) .
Local private equity (PE) firm Novo Tellus, led by co-founder and managing partner Loke Wai San, invested in the then-floundering company back in 2011 and famously lifted its share price from 7 cents to as high as more than $5 at the end of 2021, giving it a market cap of more than $1 billion before the recent downturn halved it to its current levels of less than $2.
