Newly listed Winking Studios plans to raise up to $27 million via a placement of new shares at 25 cents each.
The placement, which will be managed by PrimePartners Corporate Finance, is backed by its indirect controlling shareholder, Acer Group of Taiwan, which holds around 60% of Winking Studios.
According to the company on April 10, it plans to issue up to 108 million shares. A group of Acer entities will subscribe for at least 64.8 million new shares worth $16.2 million.
The Acer group of entities will also take up the other placement shares if there are no other takers.
At 25 cents each, the placement shares are priced at a 1% discount to the volume weighted average price (VWAP) of 25.24 cents as of April 9 and a discount of 4.6% off the VWAP of 26.2 cents for the past 7 trading days.
Assuming all shares are spoken for, the company's share base will increase by more than a third to 387.7 million shares.
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According to Johnny Jan, executive chairman and CEO of Winking Studios, this placement exercise will help fund "corporate actions" such as acquisitions, alliances and joint ventures so as to grow its market share and enlarge its customer base.
The newly raised funds will also help beef up its capabilities including use of AI.
Just on April 8, Winking Studios announced plans to acquire Malaysian art and animation outsourcing company Pixelline Production.
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It has entered into a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Pixelline’s owners Lee Jie Way and Beh Yit Xian for the proposed acquisition, with the price tag not yet finalised.
On a pro forma basis, the company's NTA per share will increase from 10 cents to 14.1 cents, and its EPS will dip from 0.98 cents to 0.68 cents.
