Air Asia’s fintech arm raised $100 million from SK Group
The $100-million investment in Air Asia’s BigPay
SK Group is a conglomerate run by South Korean billionaire Chey Tae-won. The group has agreed to invest $100 million in BigPay. This is the fintech unit of low-cost carrier Air Asia (Malaysia). The new investment will support Air Asia’s digital initiatives. It wants to accelerate its expansion of financial logistics services across Southeast Asia. BigPay wants to expand its services beyond international money transfers and digital payments. They are looking for one of the five digital banking licenses Malaysia offers. Malaysia’s central bank is expected to award the license next year. BigPay provides services to Malaysian and Singaporean customers. The company wants to expand to Thailand after Air Asia acquired Gojek in July 2021.
In 2018, NPS, SK, IMM invested USD 470 million to hold 9.5% stakes of Masan. SK hoped this would support the operation of SK Hynix Inc. Because Masan has the largest tungsten mine in the world. In December 2019, Masan bought 83.7% shares of VinCommerce. In April 2021, Masan sold 16.3% of VinCommerce shares to SK for $410 million. SK is the largest foreign investor with 9.31% stake in Masan, 29.2% in VinCommerce. Masan is raising $200 million from Korea Investment PE fund. This fund also participates in some Masan issues as a third party, holding 2-3% of the shares. The value of this M&A deal remains undisclosed. This is the fund’s second investment in Vietnam, after the $300-million one in Vingroup and IMM in 2019.
SK Telecom joins with Kakao in setting up an ESG fund
SK Telecom Co will join Kakao Corp to create an investment fund worth 20 billion won ($17.29 million). The fund is for companies with high prospects to sustainably develop in terms of Environment – Society – Corporate Governance (ESG). Each company contributed 10 billion won to create the fund, attracting funding from investors to bring together a total amount of more than 25 billion won. The fund focuses on investing in technology companies and startups in converging industries, ensuring ESG standards. Kakao and SK Telecom formed a strategic partnership in 2019. At that time, the two companies reached a stock swap agreement worth 300 billion won.
Sources of information include Bnews, Forbes, KEDGlobal, and Seoul Economic Daily.
