Quoteworthy: "There are no special cases: rules are rules." — Prime Minister Scott Morrison, referring to Australia’s decision to bar tennis player Novak Djokovic, who wasn’t vaccinated, from the Australian Open
Eyeing regional growth, NTUC Income to corporatise
Insurer NTUC Income, set up as a co-operative in 1970 to provide coverage for under-served workers, plans to restructure into a corporate entity so that it can have more flexibility to tap different capital sources to fund growth opportunities.
Upon approval of its shareholders and regulators, NTUC Income will become Income Insurance, an entity under the Companies Act. The proposed corporatisation exercise is expected to be completed in the second half of 2022.
"We see corporatisation as a strategic and essential pivot for Income to scale its business quicker locally and regionally, invest in growth channels and markets, as well as digital capabilities to effectively compete more equitably with other insurers,” says chairman Ronald Ong. “More significantly, we will be even more responsive to changing customer needs via insurance solutions that speak to today’s digital-first lifestyles and customers.”
NTUC Income notes that with more than 50 years of operating history, it finds itself in a mature domestic market with evolving regulatory requirements and stiffer competition from other insurers with extensive distribution scale and access to growth both within and outside Singapore. It faces competition from newer players offering a bigger variety of targeted products “that are embedded in their digital-first lifestyles”.
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NTUC Income says it has been “agile” in responding to these changes. With the corporatisation, it can try to gain more operational flexibility and “access to strategic growth options” so that it can compete on an equal footing with other insurers locally and regionally.
This will build on Income’s recent foray into Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam through strategic local partnerships with leading players in the insurance, broker and InsurTech arenas via the Insurance-as-a-Service model.
According to NTUC Income CEO Andrew Yeo, the insurer now has a market share of around 8% on life policies, making it the fifth largest player in this segment, and 20% share on new health policies. By policy count, it is the market leader for health and has a 10% market share for general insurance, says the insurer.
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When asked about a potential listing, Yeo says: “[There] is nothing in the horizon. Currently right now what we are focusing on is really just the corporatisation exercise – to position ourselves to be able to have access to more strategic growth plans as well as operational flexibility in future-proofing Income.”
Ethereum’s dominance in DeFi is ‘far from given,’ says JPMorgan
Ethereum’s dominance in one of the hottest corners of cryptocurrencies is at risk of being further eroded as competitors push deeper into decentralized finance, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Until the final phase of Sharding, which JPMorgan described as the “most critical” development for scaling the Ethereum network, arrives in 2023, the network’s 70% market share in DeFi could continue to drop, analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote in a note on Jan 5.
The “optimistic view about Ethereum’s dominance is at risk”, Panigirtzoglou wrote. Scaling, “which is necessary for the Ethereum network to maintain its dominance, might arrive too late”.
Ethereum has been a dominant force in crypto for several years now, and its Ether token is the No 2 cryptocurrency behind Bitcoin by market value. But its share of total value locked in DeFi, which was nearly 100% at the beginning of 2021, fell to around 70% over the course of the year, JPMorgan said.
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Waning enthusiasm for the Ethereum blockchain could dent the price of Ether, which has more than doubled in the past year.
Panigirtzoglou added that a “rather problematic” aspect of the situation for Ethereum is that it is losing market share mostly to other independent blockchains, rather than those that rely on Ethereum’s own Layer 1 network for their security.
Ethereum competitors that are gaining the most market share — like Terra, Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche and Solana — have been receiving large amounts of funding and using incentives to boost usage in their own ecosystems, JPMorgan said. So it is possible that competitors’ ecosystems will have grown so much that activity will not return en masse to the Ethereum network after its scaling is completed.
Ether’s price has risen about 220% in the past year, while Solana is up 7,000% and Avalanche 2,200%, according to prices on CoinGecko. While far outpaced by its smaller rivals, Ether has still comfortably outperformed Bitcoin. — Bloomberg
Vertex Ventures files first SGX Spac prelim prospectus to raise $200 mil
Vertex Ventures has on Jan 6 has filed a preliminary prospectus to potentially raise some $200 million as the first special purpose acquisition company (Spac) listing on the Singapore Exchange (SGX).
The SPAC — Vertex Technology Acquisition Corp (VTAC) — is mandated to complete its initial business combination within 24 months of the listing date with a business having a core technology focus, highly differentiated products and scalable business models, with the aim to improve people’s lives by transforming businesses, markets and economies.
VTAC focuses on tech in the spaces of artificial intelligence; cyber security and enterprise solutions; consumer internet and technologies; financial technologies; autonomous driving and new-energy vehicles; and biomedical technologies digital healthcare.
In line with the listing, VTAC intends to acquire one or more related businesses that could bring value to the company.
The offering will see 40 million units in VTAC being offered at $5.00 per unit by way of IPO in Singapore.
Thus far, VTAC has secured 13 cornerstone investors to subscribe for an aggregate of 22.2 million cornerstone units to raise total proceeds of $111 million. It has also secured $30 million from its sponsor Vertex Venture Holdings.
The 13 cornerstone investors include fellow Temasek-linked fund management entities Fullerton Fund Management Company, Venezio Investments; Asdew Acquisitions, held by notable investor Wang Yu Huei, couple of DBS entities; alternative investment firm Dymon Asia Capital (Singapore); Malaysia-based fund manager Fortress Capital Asset Management; Greenpark Investment; Linden Capital; Lion Global Investors; Target Asset Management; The Segantii Asia-Pacific Equity Multi-Strategy Fund; and UBS Asset Management.
Vertex Ventures is a Singapore-based global venture capital platform, which provides anchor funding and operational support to a proprietary global network of venture capital funds, through a master fund structure. It has an active portfolio of over 200 portfolio companies and over US$5.1 billion ($6.9 billion) assets under management (AUM), of which approximately US$3.7 billion is managed by 18 global network funds (Vertex Network Funds) handled by independent general partners.
All 100% of gross proceeds raised from the offering and issuance of the cornerstone units and sponsor IPO investment units will be placed in an escrow account (complying with the SGX-ST requirement whereby at least 90% of gross proceeds are to be placed in an escrow account).
VTAC will be led by non-executive chairman Chia Kee Lock, as well as executive director and CEO Jiang Honghui and CFO Sito Tuck Wai.
The joint global coordinators, joint bookrunners and joint underwriters are Credit Suisse (Singapore), DBS Bank, and Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore). — Samantha Chiew
Cover photo: NTUC Income
