Many Singaporeans may have missed the news. New York’s first hawker centre opened last year. Urban Hawker, as it is called, is located a few blocks away from Times Square. It feels like the Maxwell Road Hawker centre, except for the humidity.
Urban Hawker has done well. Its lunch queues are longer than those at Lau Pa Sat. Its patrons are not just the homesick Singaporeans in New York. The diners are so diverse that they resemble the United Nations.
Dishes like nasi lemak and bee hoon sold there are just as savoury as in Singapore. Their prices are a clincher. A typical plate of chicken rice is priced at US$6 (around $8), which is great value in a city where a comparable meal is US$9.
Singapore’s own hawker centres provide even better value. Because the government subsidises the rent, chicken rice can cost as low as US$3 a plate.
Investors in New York need not to visit Urban Hawker to enjoy Singapore on the cheap. Singaporean tech companies could be trading on the Nasdaq at a wider discount. Almost a dozen Singaporean tech companies have listed in New York. These companies have raised money that would have been beyond their reach at home.
Apart from Grab, which raised US$4 billion in the largest spac (special purpose acquisition company) deal in history, as many as 10 Singaporean tech companies have listed in New York.
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The 10 companies have raised combined proceeds of almost US$500 million in the last two years. The proceeds include the funds from spacs. The companies include Ohmyhome and Simpple. All of them have tanked.
MoneyHero Group is the latest on the list. The financial products platforms listed through a spac a few days ago. The company is on the cutting edge of fintech. The MoneyHero platform compares personal loans, insurance and credit cards. It is an app that guides personal finance decisions. It is like an online guide to personal finance.
MoneyHero gets a fee each time customers buys a product. The fee is either a flat fee or a percentage. The company has nine million users in Asean with an average revenue per user of nearly US$7. Its revenue grew 45% in the last five years.
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Its Nasdaq listing with Bridgetown Holdings raised US$100 million. Bridgetown is one of the most prestigious spacs. It is backed by PayPal founder Peter Thiel’s venture capital fund and the family office of Hong Kong tycoon Richard Li.
MoneyHero’s growth and pedigree have caught everyone’s eye, except that of Nasdaq’s investors. In the three days since its listing, MoneyHero is down 74%. The stock dropped, as soon as the champagne bottles were uncorked on Oct 13. It is among the worst performers in the crowded field of spac-listing debacles.
It is now worth US$117 million, which is roughly equal to its net cash. Its cash burn may have been US$15 million in FY2022. If that rate continues, the net cash balance could fund the company for another seven years.
MoneyHero’s debacle seems unfair for other reasons. It has cut operating expenses in the last year. Also, the monetisation measures with its nine-million customer base seems to have accelerated. They are offering a much wider range of products now than two years ago.
MoneyHero’s ebitda loss in 1HFY2023 was US$0.9 million. Its management says it may achieve positive ebitda before long. If so, investors may be able to catch it on the cusp of a turnaround. MoneyHero’s debacle on Nasdaq, despite strong cash flow prospects, is not unusual. Others in this category include OhmyHome and Simpple, which are Nasdaq-listed property tech companies. Simpple is down 7% since its listing, but OhmyHome has done much worse with a 70% drop. Both seem well-funded and on the verge of ebitda positivity.
Buying cheap chicken rice may not be the only value investment for New Yorkers.
Nirgunan Tiruchelvam is head of consumer and internet at Aletheia Capital and author of Investing in the Covid Era. He does not hold any position in the stocks mentioned in this column. This column does not constitute investment advice of any kind
