Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad (Kenanga Group), an independent investment bank in Malaysia, revealed that it had purchased an 8 percent share in Helicap Pte Ltd, a fintech company based in Singapore.
In a statement, Kenanga Group claimed that it has joined forces with Helicap to push its digitization projects even farther.
As part of this collaboration, Kenanga Group has collectively taken an 8 percent investment in Helicap through a fund managed by Kenanga Investors Berhad, its asset and wealth management division.
The investment is part of Helicap’s Series B funding round, in which Credit Saison, one of the biggest non-bank financial firms in Japan that is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, has Saison Capital Pte Ltd, its corporate venture capital arm, as lead investor. Kenanga Group is also involved.
Kenanga Group will then become the largest institutional investor in Helicap when its stake is increased further in the near future to roughly 10%.
Innovation and technology have been the cornerstones of Helicap’s success as a fintech private investment platform operating in Southeast Asia (SEA) and focusing in the alternative financing market.
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Its strongest asset is its in-house credit analytics engine, which is essential to its competitive advantage.
Managing Director of Kenanga Group Chay Wai Leong claims that the company sets itself apart from competitors by utilizing digital technology to improve the quality of its service and solution offerings.
“By focusing on digital innovation, we have provided multiple touchpoints to enable our clients to engage with our services more efficiently and effectively, Therefore, our investment into Helicap is a natural progression in our digitalization journey, as Helicap’s proprietary technology can potentially be embedded into Kenanga’s own lending and investment banking business seamlessly to provide greater loan book transparency and analysis, portfolio and credit risk monitoring and granular-level data to identify nascent opportunities and obtain microeconomic insights,” he added.
As per the announcement, this investment expands on the wider digitization endeavors of Kenanga Group, which includes its prosperous investments in Rakuten, CapBay, Tokenize Malaysia, and Merchantrade.
These alliances demonstrate the group’s dedication to working with cutting-edge fintech businesses that are leaders in their industries. It wants to keep improving its company operations, break into new markets, and investigate uncharted territory by implementing cutting-edge digital technologies.
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The Investment comes after the July 2024 debut of the Kenanga Alternative Series: Income Opportunities Fund, which signaled the beginning of Kenanga Investors’ newest product line. It provides feeds into an open-ended Asian private credit vehicle called Helicap Income Opportunities vehicle.
Kenanga Investors’ Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer Ismitz Matthew De Alwis said their enhanced partnership with Helicap will enable them to tap into its global network as a source of offshore capital as well as to facilitate deal co-origination and syndication efforts in both Singapore and Malaysia. Ultimately, we believe this will provide a strategic base for Kenanga Group to build further cross-border collaborative partnerships and capitalize on the dynamic growth in the region, as well as the rising income and affluence among South-East Asian investors,” he added.
Since its founding in 2018, Helicap has invested about S$500 million ($383 million) through its regulated subsidiaries, providing accredited and institutional investors with investment options across Southeast Asia.
As a platform operator in Southeast Asia, it has deliberately concentrated its investments mostly on financial institutions, using its improved loan structure and distinctive credit screening technology to produce steady and reliable profits.
About Kenanga Investment
Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad is a Malaysian financial group with expertise in equity broking, investment banking, treasury, Islamic banking, listed derivatives, investment management, wealth management, structured lending, and trade financing. It also specialises in regulatory compliance
About Helicap
Helicap, One of the earliest Southeast Asian, Hong Kong, and Australian fintech fund management investment platforms for alternative lending. They support industry best practices as impartial investors using expertise. With their in-house data analytics skills, they have raised over US$30 million in paid-up capital and invested US$300 million in capital in recent years.
