Corporate digest

The Hour Glass

THE Australian unit of The Hour Glass has entered into an agreement to acquire a freehold property located at 139 Collins Street in Melbourne, Australia, the mainboard-listed company announced in a bourse filing on Friday night.

The property is a four-storey retail and commercial office building, with a basement carpark, occupying a site area of about 563 square metres. The seller is a company called Jarema.

Located in Melbourne's luxury retail precinct, the building has a gross lettable area of 2,494 sq m. A retail tenant occupies the ground and first floors, while other tenants are occupying two levels of commercial offices.

The Hour Glass said that the purchase will complement its commercial properties in the region. It will fund the purchase with internal resources and bank borrowings. The transaction is subject to approval from Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board.

iFast Corporation

BT in your inbox

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign Up

Sign Up

WEALTH management platform iFast Corp plans to continue pursuing a digital banking licence both in Singapore and abroad, despite its failed bid for a digital wholesale bank (DWB) licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

On Friday evening, MAS announced that it will award full digital banking licences to Internet firm Sea and the Grab-Singtel consortium, as well as DWB licences to China's Ant Group and a consortium led by Greenland Financial.

iFast's consortium, with China's Yillion Group and Hande Group, did not succeed. However, MAS has said that it will review whether to grant more of DWB licences in the future, the mainboard-listed company said in a bourse filing on Saturday.

"(During) the DWB application process, iFast has shared with shareholders and investors on how a digital bank licence will further strengthen the group's fintech ecosystem. The group remains committed in continuing its pursuit of a digital bank licence, including in other jurisdictions," the company said.

MindChamps PreSchool

MINDCHAMPS PreSchool Singapore, a unit of enrichment and childcare service provider MindChamps, has entered an agreement to sell one of its preschools for S$800,000 in cash, the mainboard-listed firm announced in a Saturday bourse filing.

The school being sold is MindChamps UPT, which is fully owned by MindChamps PreSchool. The buyer is Yirong Education, which had also previously bought MindChamps PreSchool @ Changi Business Park, and currently owns and operates the preschool as a MindChamps franchisee.

The selling price is above MindChamps UPT's book value of S$417,259 as at end-October. The sale is expected to have a positive impact on MindChamps' financial results for the year ending December 2021.