Tag: Acquisition

The service of retail banking plays a significant role in consumers’ financial lifestyle, and as the industry continuously witnesses disruptions, we can expect players in retail banking to continue to undergo considerable development and transformation. This then opens up the competition to devise newer strategies to strengthen businesses and provide customers with an enhanced banking experience.

Last December 2021, we saw this into fruition in the Philippine market. UnionBank, one of the leading banking institutions in the Philippines, specifically, the seventh-largest publicly-listed bank in the country, has revealed that it has decided to acquire Citi’s consumer banking business in the country.

A few months prior to this, Citi has unveiled its new strategy to move its focus to its Institutional Clients Group in April 2021, driving them to finally let go of their consumer banking business in the Philippines. The acquisition by UnionBank entails a ‘share and business transfer agreement’ with various subsidiaries of Citi. Through this, UnionBank’s transactions will now include Citi’s credit card, personal loans, wealth management, and retail deposit businesses. It will also now own Citi’s real estate interests in relation to Citibank Square located in Eastwood, one of Manila’s main shopper destinations; three full-service bank branches, and five wealth centres, as well as two bank branch offices.

For MARKETECH APAC‘s industry deep dive The Inner State, we have invited Albert Cuadrante, Union Bank of the Philippines’ chief marketing officer, to tell more about his insights regarding the marketing implications of the recent acquisition.

Impact of Citi’s exit in the Philippines’ retail banking industry

UnionBank is widely known as one of the most digitally transformed and future-forward banks in the country, with over four million users on its digital platform, while Citi has had the third-largest credit card franchise in the country and is a pre-eminent wealth management provider.

Cuadrante believes that, with the above in mind, the move is a very positive development for the retail banking industry because ultimately, the “real winners here are the customers.” 

He further shared that there is also a minimal overlap, particularly in credit cards which accounts for [a] large portion of Citi’s customer base.

“The clear synergies that this acquisition presents us with opportunities to come out with even better products and further elevate our level of service to customers,” noted Cuadrante.

Uplifting UnionBank’s brand positioning

As per the effects of the acquisition on UnionBank’s brand positioning, Cuadrante said that UnionBank’s aspiration is to be a ‘great retail bank’ focused on growing its consumer retail banking business and led by its digital transformation initiatives. With the recent acquisition, he believes that this will provide them with a transformational opportunity to fast-track their growth aspirations in the retail banking segment.

With Citi being the country’s largest foreign bank and its consumer business offering a superior suite of product offerings in credit cards, personal loans, and wealth management, Cuadrante trusts that UnionBank will be able to benefit from Citi’s expertise in product development, spending management, data intelligence and modelling, portfolio managing and cross-sell, and sales and distribution. 

“This will enable UnionBank to effectively take the business to the next level and further strengthen our value proposition to our customers,” he said.

Citi’s customers transitioning to UnionBank

In terms of adopting Citi’s consumer banking customers, Cuadrante noted that UnionBank is committed to ensuring the quality of products and level of customer service Citi customers are currently enjoying.

He said that customers will have access to UnionBank’s digital channels, a wide range of product and service offerings, and branch network, over and above the existing branches, products, and services of Citi. In addition, customers will be able to benefit from its data-driven decision-making and omnichannel platform offering to enjoy personalised offers tailored to their needs.

Meanwhile, UnionBank plans to retain Citi’s good performance amongst its clients by treating the Citi portfolio as a separate business unit until such time when they are able to fully integrate the systems and practices between UnionBank and Citi.

“Citi, on their part, is committed to supporting the transition and shall continue to provide regional support until we are able to migrate their entire consumer business to our systems and platforms,” added Cuadrante.

The long-term benefit of the acquisition to UnionBank

UnionBank is expecting results in significant synergies for them, particularly from the opportunity to cross-sell products to a larger combined customer base, helping them gain scale and increase profitability and grow their penetration rate.

Cuadrante said that the combined credit card portfolio will bring them to #4 in the industry, up from #10 currently, and within striking distance of the top 3. Citi also has close to one million customers, ranging from the mass affluent to the high net worth, which complements their over 10 million customer accounts today.

“The Citi customer base is largely incremental as there is minimal overlap, particularly in credit cards which accounts for [a] large portion of Citi’s consumer business,” he added.

Hong Kong – Online marketing and enterprise data solutions provider iClick has fully acquired the remaining equity interest of Changyi Information Technology Co., the independent software vendor in China that provides intelligent retail and CRM solutions. 

Through the acquisition, iClick will be accelerating the expansion of its Enterprise Solutions business, spearheaded by its newly established ‘SaaS + X’ business model which aims to help companies strengthen their productivity and enhance their private domain through effective key opinion leader (KOL) recommendations, efficient targeted marketing and e-commerce partnerships while integrating data assets and solidifying their brand profiles.

iClick said that in consideration of the acquisition, it will pay RMB6,000,000 and will issue 3,091,327 American depository shares. Upon completion of the proposed transaction, Changyi will be wholly owned by the iClick.

Jian Tang, iClick’s chairman, co-founder, and CEO, shared that the demand for private domain traffic remains strong and they are capitalising on this trend through continued investment in their Enterprise Solutions business.

“The acquisition of the remaining shares of Changyi will accelerate the evolution of our Enterprise Solutions and better help our clients to innovate through digital transformation,” said Tang.

Singapore – Japan-based advertising agency, ADK, has acquired Rage Communications, the independent agency that specialises in digital experience design and e-commerce solutions. The move aims to combine both organisations’ capabilities in digital marketing, web design and development, analytics, and data-driven insights, as well as content narratives, to drive integrated end-to-end performance and brand campaigns for clients.

Moreover, the acquisition will see ADK becoming the major shareholder, while Rage’s founders, JRK Rao and Karthik Kumar remain as minority shareholders. As part of the agreement, Rage will be rebranded as ADK Rage, and Rao will continue to lead as CEO of ADK Rage, and he, along with Kumar, will be working closely with ADK global team to offer integrated solutions to clients. 

Yasuyuki Katagi, ADK Global Operations’ CEO, noted that this partnership marks their milestone entry into the India and Australia markets – two of the fastest-growing digital markets in APAC.

He further shared that with Rage, ADK will immediately gain traction at a brand consultancy level, providing a strong starting point for further growth in these key markets.

“We are also extremely excited at the collaboration opportunities to supercharge growth for our clients together. The new ADK Rage will offer clients with differentiated industry expertise, unparalleled partnerships, unique intellectual property, a full-service digital innovation offering and compelling scale,” said Katagi.

Meanwhile, Rao and Kumar commented that this partnership with ADK is a significant moment in the growth of Rage as it opens new horizons in a rapidly changing global economy, and they both share the same vision in the digital transformation of businesses and their interactions with consumers.

“It is our hope that our combined strengths will add greater value to our existing clients and reach out to the larger marketing community around the world. This also represents substantial opportunities for our respective staffs to work together in an increasingly technology-led multicultural world,” they said.

ADK said that the move follows its recent launch of Integrated Performance Platform (IPP), a data-driven marketing intelligence technology for brands and agencies in October. The IPP is designed to centralise the connection of all ad accounts for ad platforms and demand-side platforms (DSPs) in one place, enabling advertisers to scale their campaigns across multiple platforms efficiently, while gaining complete control and transparency of all digital media channels and regional teams at the same time.

New York – Independent omnichannel sell-side advertising platform Magnite has announced their acquisition of Carbon, a first-party platform that consolidates revenue and audience analytics to enable publishers management in real-time.

Through the acquisition, the publisher-first audience technology that the Carbon team has built and leveraged with Magnite’s scale and global footprint will create meaningful opportunities for media owners and advertisers to further their reach and enhance the value of their advertising.

In addition, the acquisition accelerates Magnite’s goals of seller-first, privacy-focused identity and audience solutions focused around first-party segments and bolsters the product and engineering teams in this critical area. The buyout between the two organisations was completed through an asset purchase.

Adam Soroca, chief product officer at Magnite, said, “We believe seller-defined audiences will be a core part of the future of identity and addressability. CTV sellers have valuable viewer data that makes them well-positioned to create unique first-party data and we expect their demands around addressability to become more pronounced. As it relates to the open web, the likely deprecation of the third-party cookie means publisher-centric identity solutions are foundational to the future of advertising.”

Meanwhile, Pete Danks, CEO and founder at Carbon, commented, “Helping publishers be more profitable by providing them with technology to unlock the opportunities within their data has always been core to our mission. We’re excited to further this goal as Magnite and continue to work with publishers to lay the groundwork for a new audience-based advertising paradigm built on sell-side data.”

Hanoi, Vietnam — Southeast Asian data-driven loyalty platform Society Pass Incorporated, also known as SoPa, announced its buyout of Dream Space Trading Company, the operator of Handycart, an online grocery delivery service based in Hanoi, Vietnam. Dream Space will be integrated into SoPa’s F&B delivery vertical with SoPa’s existing merchant software platform HOTTAB.

In addition to the buyout, Handycart Founder and CEO Seo Jun Ho have been named head of the new business unit, managing both Handycart and #HOTTAB in Vietnam.

Handycart, founded recently in 2019, is an online grocery delivery app with its own fleet of delivery vehicles that focuses on the Korean restaurant market and F&B sector in Hanoi. Vietnam has embraced the ‘Korean Wave’; a recent survey by market research firm Q&Me found that 58 per cent of Vietnamese favour Korean cuisine.

Ngo Thi Cham, country general manager of SoPa Vietnam, commented on the strategic step, saying that they are excited to welcome Handycart to the larger SoPa ecosystem which will enable it to harness integrated marketing and technology proposition while also strengthening its collective senior management resources.

“We endeavour to combine the robust technology and operational efficiency of a speciality e-commerce brand like Handycart with our brand-building experience. SoPa has witnessed, with our runaway success of Leflair, in Vietnam, that this move will lead to immediate returns in terms of cost optimization and increased revenue generation. We are determined to increase merchant coverage to 500 restaurants in Hanoi by the end of 2022 and look to expand to HCMC in 3Q 2022​,” Cham said.

With Handycart leveraging on SoPa’s integrated technology platform to drive operational efficiencies and business performance, the platform will focus on increasing on-demand grocery shopping services to more consumers in the country, while empowering speciality F&B restaurants to transform business models and further increase reach in online markets.

Seo Jun Ho, CEO of Handycart, said, “Handycart was established in 2019 with a mission of connecting Korean patrons seeking a taste of home through its established network of authentic Korean restaurants right here in Vietnam. Providing businesses with speedy access to authentic Korean products has helped us gather a loyal user base of over 3000 with more than 26,000 orders in 2021 alone. SoPa will now be able to accelerate Handycart’s growth given our well-established positioning as a go-to online grocery delivery service. Partnership with Society Pass will enable us to unlock growth opportunities within the industry and I am glad that Handycart can now avail itself of SoPa’s synergistic ecosystem.”

Vietnam has been one of the fastest-growing economies within SEA over the past two decades. The country’s e-commerce is growing tremendously, valued at 13.2b USD; it is expected to grow steadily from 2021 until 2025.

Recently, SoPa entered the Philippine market with its acquisition of Pushkart.ph as the loyalty platform is an acquisition focused e-commerce holding company with focuses in Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Singapore — Singapore-based fintech company M-DAQ announced its buyout of Wallex, a B2B cross-border payments provider with licenses in Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Singapore. The acquisition marks the first for M-DAQ, as it expands its reach in the value chain and aims to capture other market opportunities.

Aside from the amount paid for the full acquisition, M-DAQ will also invest in accelerating the Wallex business. The combined entity is expected to process in the excess of S$15 billion or US$11b of Gross Transaction Value (GTV) this year.

Wallex offers a series of services namely facilitating B2B cross-border payments for businesses in markets namely Indonesia, Greater China, and Singapore by offering seamless transactions with competitive exchange rates and fees into more than 180 countries. Businesses can benefit from advanced multi-currency solutions to collect payments via virtual accounts and hold funds in a digital wallet. The payment platform also supports fintech companies in Asia to innovate and scale their businesses with customisable APIs by leveraging Wallex’s infrastructure to build cross-border offerings tailored to their customer needs.

Wallex has seen notable growth despite the pandemic with a recorded 5.5x growth in its annualised revenue over the past year. The Wallex platform supports nearly 2,000 banking and technology clients, processing almost S$4 billion in GTV annually.

Both entities improve on their existing offerings in virtue of the buyout. M-DAQ clients can benefit from a better experience with funds transfers through Wallex’s versatile technology, further improving reporting accuracy and regulatory reporting requirements. As for Wallex, their client can enhance their FX experience through the M-DAQ proprietary solution, Aladdin, that can provide guaranteed FX rates and achieve more competitive pricing through the aggregation and algorithmic capabilities that M-DAQ offers.

Richard Koh, founder and group CEO of M-DAQ, said that investing in businesses with strong growth potential is one of M-DAQ’s core strategies as they expand their ecosystem. He continued by saying that they are excited to welcome Wallex into the M-DAQ Group to strengthen their footprint in the payments space by reaching a wider range of SMEs and their customers as they look to provide additional value and cost reductions to their businesses. Both organisations will continue with their aggressive hiring to scale further Koh shared.

“M-DAQ is also investing in building an ecosystem that complements the core FX business. In this instance, M-DAQ will be the upstream FX provider to supply Wallex with the necessary liquidity it needs to run its core payments business. This B2B2b2C business model is an ecosystem of businesses that complements each other, reduces duplication, increases efficiency, and ultimately reduces transaction costs for the end clients, as economies of scale are materialised,” Koh said.

Wallex will continue as an independently operated business and brand, while simultaneously announcing the elevation of Hiro Kiga, co-founder and COO, as the new CEO of Wallex.

Hiro Kiga, co-founder and CEO of Wallex, commented, “At Wallex, we have always strived to deliver the most cost-efficient, fast, and secure payment solutions for global businesses. The combination of Wallex’s network and M-DAQ’s fintech expertise will enable us to deliver greater value to empower businesses across borders. We look forward to achieving our goals together, by creating new opportunities that leverage the strengths of each platform.”

Cross-border payments have seen significant growth due to rising demand from businesses of all sizes to engage in international trade. With a six-year track record of providing price certainty, M-DAQ’s flagship FX solution Aladdin has cleared close to S$30 billion cross-border transactions. The solution currently empowers two of the largest internet ecosystems in China. Aladdin enables customers on eCommerce platforms to shop in their home currency while allowing merchants to receive payment in their preferred currency and creating a new risk-free revenue stream for platform operators.

Singapore — Southeast Asian data-driven loyalty platform Society Pass Incorporated, otherwise known as SoPa, announced its acquisition of Pushkart.ph, an online grocery delivery service in the Philippines as part of its expansion into the market.

Through the buyout, Pushkart.ph has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of SoPa and will leverage the platform’s capital to increase on-demand grocery shopping services to more consumers and more retailers initially to Metro Manila and then to all of the Philippines, while empowering grocery stores and restaurants to transform business models and further tap into online markets.

The announcement comes at a time of accelerated rapid growth for delivery services in the Philippines, with the internet economy expected to increase 24% from US$17b in 2021 to US$40b in 2025. Pushkart.ph is one of the Philippines’ growing e-commerce platforms, with a customer base of over 125,000 registered users, over 35,000 social media followers, and more than 20,000 mobile app downloads.

Dennis Nguyen, founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Society Pass, said that they are excited to combine the robust technology, retail and operational prowess of a high-performance brand like Pushkart.ph with SoPa’s brand-building experience.

“As the Philippine consumer faces tremendous challenges with traditional brick and mortar shopping due to a plethora of hurdles including excessive wait times in traffic/ public transport, SoPa aims to provide viable solutions by providing impetus to the growing e-commerce industry in the country. Given the immense potential of the Philippines market, we are very excited about the opportunities that this acquisition will bring in the upcoming months. In addition, as the Philippines is a cornerstone of SoPa’s VIP (Vietnam, Indonesia, and Philippines) acquisition strategy, I expect to acquire a number of market-leading companies in the Philippines over the next few months,” Nguyen said.

Michael Lim, CEO of Pushkart.ph, commented, “We are very excited to announce our acquisition by Society Pass; this partnership provides us with the opportunity to not only grow our presence in the Philippines but further our lead in the grocery delivery business. We are excited to join the larger SoPa ecosystem which will enable us to harness its integrated marketing and technology proposition while also strengthening our collective senior management resources. We foresee that this will lead to immediate returns in terms of cost optimization and increased revenue generation. With the capital provided by SoPa, Pushkart.ph will now be empowered to provide enhanced end to end solutions to our customers and ensure an amplified market presence.

The data-driven loyalty platform said that they are leveraging technology to provide a more personalised experience for customers in the purchase journey, to help transform the entire retail value chain in SEA. Through the acquisition of growing companies and partnership with visionary entrepreneurs in five distinct verticals: loyalty, lifestyle, travel, food & beverage and merchant software, SoPa expects to meet the region’s growing demand for better and more convenient services.

The acquisition is in line with SoPa’s core vertical focus and facilitates the proliferation of its growth in the Philippines while increasing consumer opportunities and delivering enhanced value. This move will also help tap the increasing digital penetration in the online grocery shopping space in the Philippines market.

In a press release, the SoPa disclosed that the offering of this acquisition is of immense consequence to the end-user with SoPa’s aggressive new plans for Pushkart.ph which include adding more hubs in key cities and regions and increasing its manpower. SoPa aims to expand Pushkart.ph’s technology offering, phenomenally increasing registered users to more than double to over 300,000 and driving app downloads to over 150,000 in 2022. Philippine consumers will be able to use Pushkart.ph app across 19 cities in Metro Manila with a guaranteed next day delivery service.

Massachusetts, USA – Global technology media, data, and marketing services company, IDG Communications, Inc. (IDG), has acquired Selling Simplified, the Marketing-as-a-Service (MaaS) platform that provides lead generation products, data services, and analytics.

The acquisition of Selling Simplified allows IDG to add contact and account level AI-powered lead generation capabilities to its expanding suite of intent-based marketing technologies.

Through the acquisition, Selling Simplified will be offering two distinct opportunities for product growth within IDG. First is a global dataset of more than 160 million B2B records specific to tech industry purchase intent which can be added to IDG’s existing proprietary audience, creating the world’s largest addressable database of in-market tech decision-makers and influencers.

And lastly, Selling Simplified will also be offering a marketing technology platform that identifies and scores intent signals based on campaign engagement leveraging machine learning. The company’s Demandcentr system will continuously monitor behavioural context and build an understanding of the purchase intent behind each contact and account in the database. The combined data and marketing technology identify the most valuable contacts for sales outreach or continued lead nurture.

Kumaran Ramanathan, IDG’s president, shared that marketing campaigns simply perform better when you can also apply knowledge of the prospect’s current stage in the path-to-purchase and actively engage them.

“Selling Simplified has been able to provide just that and shares our commitment to building deep relationships across international markets,” said Ramanathan.

Meanwhile, Michael Whife, Selling Simplified’s CEO, said, “IDG was a natural partner for our next stage of development on many fronts. We believe the union of the two companies makes us the largest provider of B2B tech leads globally and offers a dynamic approach to driving success for our clients.”

Singapore — Grab, Southeast Asia’s leading super-app, announced the acquisition of a majority stake in Jaya Grocer, a leading mass-premium supermarket chain in Malaysia. The two companies plan on bringing the convenience of on-demand grocery delivery to more customers in Malaysia.

With the partnership, Jaya Grocer will now be part of Grab’s ecosystem, allowing the grocery chain to accept GrabPay and GrabRewards across all its physical retail stores, expanding usage of Grab’s popular cashless wallet.

Grab disclosed that the acquisition is timely as there is an accelerated growth in on-demand delivery services due to the pandemic causing consumers to opt for online grocery shopping. With a forecast that online grocery in Southeast Asia could grow to US$50B in gross merchandise value, equal to the size of the entire e-commerce market today, the technology company sees the acquisition as an advance step to get ahead and secure a foothold in the industry post-pandemic.

Online grocery demand remained elevated even as restrictions eased. GrabMart, Grab’s on-demand grocery and speciality retail marketplace, recorded three straight quarters of growth in the first three quarters of 2021. Jaya Grocer, a trusted and well-loved consumer brand in Malaysia, also saw continued strong growth, with revenues growing at double-digit rates year-on-year from 2018 to 2020, and is EBITDA accretive to Grab’s business. 

Anthony Tan, Group CEO and co-founder at Grab, said that it is the company’s vision to make on-demand groceries more accessible for everyone.

“Jaya Grocer is known for its wide selection of good-quality fresh produce and grocery products. By combining our extensive on-demand delivery fleet and capabilities, with Jaya Grocer’s strong retail presence and supplier network, we can have these quality products delivered to more homes even faster. We believe this partnership will further accelerate the growth of our groceries delivery business, and we are excited by the immense opportunity ahead of us,” Tan said.

Meanwhile, Teng Yew Huat, founder of Jaya Grocer, shared his thoughts on the partnership, saying, “I have built Jaya Grocer from the ground up – from our first store in Klang Valley to over 40 stores today. Grab’s strong track record and ability to execute in a hyperlocal way gives me confidence that I have found the right partner to take Jaya Grocer to new heights. This acquisition provides us with an amazing opportunity to not only grow as a company, but also grow the market for online grocery services in Malaysia.” 

Grab continues to double down on on-demand grocery delivery. The company is scaling its GrabMart marketplace by partnering with retailers to provide consumers with greater product variety and convenience. The acquisition enables Grab to bring more Jaya Grocer retail stores onto its marketplace, while also leveraging Jaya Grocer’s large supplier network to further expand its GrabSupermarket product line at lower costs. This in turn contributes to improved unit economics and overall affordability of grocery delivery.

Hong Kong – Global Fintech-as-a-Service company, Rapyd, has concluded the acquisition of Neat, a Hong Kong-based cross-border trade enabling platform for small and medium businesses (SMBs) and startups.

Rapyd’s global payments network supports more than 900 payment methods in over 100 countries and global payouts in over 200 countries making it uniquely suited to support entrepreneurs and SMBs looking to incorporate, get online, and access new markets quickly and inexpensively

With the integration of Neat, users will now be able to incorporate new companies in minutes, streamline receivables and payables in a single venue, start with Hong Kong and soon in other trade-friendly markets around the world, offer real-time high-value payments in Hong Kong via FPS, CHATS, and SWIFT, and accelerate payments to suppliers across Greater China, as well as empower smart business and employee spending via virtual and physical Visa cards, and provide eligible businesses with fast working capital through an in-wallet credit line.

Arik Shtilman, Rapyd’s CEO and co-founder, shared that completing the acquisition of Neat represents a significant step forward in expanding our platform’s global capabilities for small and medium businesses.

“As SMBs have evolved into increasingly complex and ambitious enterprises, the tools they require must advance as well in order to keep pace with the demands of this new wave of ‘micro-multinationals.’ We will continue to add more tools to our network in order to continue to support these growing businesses,” said Shtilman.