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Jasper Investments volume, price surge on S$9 million from investors including Koh Boon Hwee (Business Times)
Jun 6, 2024
SHARES of watch-listed Jasper Investments quadrupled in value after the marine player secured S$9 million in capital from strategic investors, including Koh Boon Hwee, a board director of Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC.
As at 3.14 pm on Thursday (Jun 6), shares of Jasper : FQ7 -16.67%were trading up 300 per cent, or S$0.003, to S$0.004. With 70.1 million shares changing hands, it was the top-traded counter on the Singapore Exchange (SGX).
It last closed at this level in September 2022.
Before the market opened on Thursday, the mainboard-listed company, which invests in marine and shipping activities, said that it had secured S$9 million in capital via the placement of some 6.2 billion shares tagged with 3.1 billion new free warrants.
Black Kite, whose ultimate beneficial owner is GIC’s Koh, has subscribed to about 333.3 million placement shares and 166.7 million warrants at a consideration of S$500,000. This brings the company’s shareholding in Jasper to 3 per cent of its enlarged share capital.
Jasper has also secured about S$1.5 million from Azure Capital’s chief executive officer Terence Wong, as well as the funds he manages. Of this amount, about S$500,000 was invested by Wong personally.
Azure All-Star Fund invested about S$500,000 as well, and the remaining amount came from Azure Prime Fund on behalf of MG Capital.
Private investor Koh Chuan Koon invested S$200,000. He is the founder and chief technology officer of TripZilla, an online travel media and technology company in South-east Asia.
Of the S$9 million in funds raised, about S$3 million came from private investor Hin Chin Qui, a director at Singapore-based property and hospitality group Chong Sing. He will hold about 18.1 per cent of Jasper’s enlarged share capital upon the issue and allotment of the placement and warrant shares.
Maritime veteran Wong Shun Lee also made a S$2.5 million investment into Jasper, representing about 15.1 per cent of the enlarged stake.
Wong Shun Lee is the managing director of Poly Million Group and has extensive experience across the oil and gas industry.
His involvement in the maritime industry will benefit Jasper “as the group seeks to expand its commercial activities in the maritime sector”, the company said.
It added that its CEO Dennis Goh identified the investors through his personal and business networks, developed during his earlier work in the venture capital space, including as co-founder and executive chairman of Lyte Ventures.
In a separate filing on Thursday, Jasper announced that Goh had been redesignated as its executive director and CEO.
The placement issue price of S$0.0015 per share represents a 50 per cent premium to the volume weighted average price of S$0.001 per share on May 30, the full market day preceding the date the placement agreements were signed.
Jasper was placed on SGX’s watch list on Jun 6, 2023, as it had recorded pre-tax losses for three consecutive financial years.
It also had an average daily market capitalisation of less than S$40 million during the six months prior to that date.