Nanofilm founder sells one per cent stake of company to Temasek's indirect subsidiary

Yong Jun Yuan

Published Tue, Sep 21, 2021 · 06:54 PM

NANOFILM Technologies founder and executive chairman Shi Xu has sold a one per cent stake of the company's total issued shares to Venezio Investments, an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings, on Tuesday, according to a regulatory filing after markets closed.

Venezio Investments will pay S$27.1 million for the approximately 6.6 million shares that it will receive and the sale is expected to be completed in a week's time.

This comes up to a price of S$4.12 per share, a 3.1 per cent discount to the nanotechnology services provider's closing price of S$4.25 on Tuesday.

Dr Shi, who is a controlling shareholder, will continue to hold a direct and indirect interest of 7.7 per cent and 47.32 per cent in the company, excluding treasury shares.

Back in July 19, Nanofilm announced that it had entered into a joint venture with Temasek to invest in Sydrogen Energy, a JV that will develop solutions to overcome limitations in the use of hydrogen as an energy source through Nanofilm's core technologies.

Under the agreement then, Nanofilm would contribute up to S$21 million in cash and transfer its hydrogen energy business and related intellectual property to Sydrogen for a 65 per cent shareholding, while Temasek could contribute cash for the remainder. The total initial investment in Sydrogen was up to around S$140 million.