Eying on the New Opportunities in Asian Financial Services Market
HONG KONG — China First Capital Group Limited (“CFCG” or the “Group”; stock code: 1269) has announced that, CFCG Investment Partners International (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. (“CFCG Singapore”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of CFCG, has acquired 100% of shares of Stirling Coleman Capital Limited (“Stirling Coleman”) for cash consideration.
In recent years, CFCG has pursued a diversification direction, through the collaboration of its financial services business units, with the business focus on education and investment, to create a platform of operation, investment and financing in the education sector guided by its strategic “Education Investment plus Financial Services”. Since the second half of 2016, the Group has more actively developed overseas markets. CFCG Singapore started operation on 1 August last year, marking an important step in the Group’s international development. The acquisition of Stirling Coleman has represented a new chapter for the Group to commence financial business in Singapore.
Founded in 2001, Stirling Coleman is an independent corporate finance advisory firm. Headquartered in Singapore, the firm has representative offices in Shanghai, China; Tokyo, Japan; and Bangkok, Thailand, aiming to offer a broad range of corporate financing services to small- and medium-sized companies (“SME”). Licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore to conduct regulated financial activities in dealing in securities and advising on corporate finance in Singapore, Stirling Coleman’s service range includes initial public offerings (“IPO”) and follow-on offerings on the Singapore Stock Exchange, independent financial advisory for Singapore-listed companies and advice on M&A of both listed and private companies in and outside Singapore. Stirling Coleman is a member of Globalscope Partners, which has 46 members on every continent in 39 countries as of November 2015. As one of the leading advisers to SME in Singapore’s equity capital market, Stirling Coleman has successfully completed IPO of 28 companies, including 22 companies from Greater China, on the Stock Exchange of Singapore since November 2003, and it has completed more than 100 transactions to date.
Mr. Yan Haiting, President and Executive Director of the Group, said, “Since the concept of economic cooperation under the ‘Belt And Road’ national strategic directive and first introduced in September 2013, the development direction has become clearer and more sophisticated. With the full support and avocation of Chinese Government and many other countries in the world, business participation has been growing. In light of this, the Group has extended its financial services platform to Southeast Asia. We believe, Singapore, as a major international financial center, is the gateway to enter the strategic financial and capital market of Southeast Asia. The Group expects that the trading, financing and other activities of capital markets in China, Hong Kong and Singapore will become more frequent and create business opportunities for the market,thereby attract quality assets from Northern Asia to capital markets in Singapore and Southeast Asia and increasing cross-border mergers and acquisitions activities across Asia. Stirling Coleman has an excellent track record and has established a famous and respected brand in Singapore. Therefore, this acquisition provides a direct platform enabling the Group to rapidly and directly access the Singapore equity capital market and provide related financial services and offerings.”