Northstar Group to prepare for SPAC listing in Singapore

Tiki is one of Northstar Group's largest investments in Vietnam

“We are evaluating a SPAC listing on the SGX,” said Patrick Walujo, co-founder and managing partner of Northstar Group.

“I think the SGX is taking the right steps to make itself more attractive. What they are doing with SPACs makes a lot of sense. Indonesia isn’t the only market. There are high growth companies in Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines that can benefit from SPACs,” said Walujo at a recent conference by Dealstreetasia.

He also revealed that the Singapore-headquartered PE firm has been offered multiple times to file for an IPO via SPACs in the US. However, Walujo believed SGX’s SPACs holds the whip hand for smaller companies, Dealstreetasia noted.

Since September, SPACs are allowed to list on SGX mainboard provided that they comply with the prescribed rules, including having a minimum $112 million market capitalisation, equivalent to 50 per cent of its initial proposal in March.

The SGX stated that its fresh SPACs framework would provide favourable conditions for Asian companies, with greater certainty on price and execution.

According to its description, Northstar Group has raised five private equity funds and invested in more than 35 companies across the banking, insurance, consumer/retail, manufacturing, oil and gas, coal, and mining services, technology, telecom, and agribusiness sectors since 2003. The PE firm has invested over $3.3 billion with its co-investors in the Southeast Asian region.

In Vietnam, Northstar has increased its footprint in Vietnam’s lucrative market through its investment in Up Co – a flexible workspace provider, Topica – one of Southeast Asia’s largest edtech firms, and Tiki – one of Vietnam’s e-commerce behemoths.