Daily Update: Air Liquide Invests €200M in SK hynix AI Chip Project; ESR-REIT Sells Industrial Assets for S$224.6M; BW LPG Exits Confidence Petroleum Stake; PGIM Launches Global Private Credit Fund; Zhang Yiming Becomes Asia’s 2nd Richest; Gorilla Tech Signs $2B AI Deal; Handshake Raises Pre-seed in Singapore; VCI Global Targets Carbon Credit Acquisition; Nippon Life & AMTD Expand Investments

AIR LIQUIDE ANNOUNCES EURO 200 MILLION INVESTMENT IN SOUTH KOREA TO SUPPORT SK HYNIX’S ADVANCED AI MEMORY CHIP PROJECT

Air Liquide has signed a major long-term contract with SK hynix, a global player in memory semiconductors. The Group will bring its solutions to SK hynix’s massive industrial project dedicated to advanced packaging of HBM (High-Bandwidth Memory), the backbone of the global AI revolution. The investment of nearly 200 million Euros is following the acquisition of DIG Airgas earlier this year.

In order to supply SK hynix’s new packaging and testing fab “P&T7”, located in Cheongju, in the Chungcheongbuk province, Air Liquide will build and operate a nitrogen production unit. 

Set to begin operations in late 2027, the facility will supply high-purity gases and high-purity compressed air to the fab in charge of the advanced packaging of HBM chips, a key component of AI development.

This contract demonstrates the immediate value creation by integrating South Korea’s leading industrial gas provider DIG Airgas into Air Liquide. 

With this new project, the Group will also significantly expand its footprint in the Cheongju industrial basin, where its teams already operate several plants supporting SK hynix, reinforcing its long-term competitive edge in the South Korean market.

Ronnie Chalmers, Air Liquide Group Vice President, in charge of supervising Asia-Pacific, stated: “This partnership reflects our strong confidence in the South Korean economy and our long-standing commitment to being a preferred partner in the global semiconductor supply chain. Thanks to the integration of DIG Airgas, which brought us a secured portfolio of nearly 20 projects, our teams now combine local agility and global innovation to accelerate Air Liquide’s growth. We are proud to support the ambitions of our partner SK hynix as they play a leading role in the AI revolution.”

ESR-REIT WRAPS UP DIVESTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL PROPERTIES FOR S$224.6 MILLION

ESR-REIT, a new economy Asia Pacific S-REIT listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited, Wednesday said it has divested 7 industrial properties located in Singapore for S$224.6 million.

The company said it is targeting to garner S$338.1 million at 2.0% premium to independent valuation.

The completion of the divestment of the 46ATP Property is currently underway.

Following the completion of the above seven divestments, ESR-REIT’s diversified portfolio consists of 63 properties located across Singapore, Japan and Australia, as well as investments in three property funds in Australia.

ESR-REIT holds interests in a diversified portfolio of logistics properties, high-specifications industrial properties, business parks and general industrial properties with total assets of approximately S$5.9 billion. Its portfolio comprises 70 properties located across the developed markets of Singapore (50 assets), Australia (18 assets) and Japan (2 assets), with a total gross floor area of approximately 2.4 million sqm, as well as investments in three property funds in Australia.

BW LPG EXITS INVESTMENT IN CONFIDENCE PETROLEUM INDIA FOLLOWING SALE OF 8.50% EQUITY STAKE

Singapore-headquartered BW LPG Wednesday said it has completed the sale of its 8.50% equity stake in Confidence Petroleum India.

“Today, we sold our 8.5% equity position in CPIL, and the divestment marks the full exit of BW LPG as a shareholder in CPIL. The investment in CPIL was classified as an equity investment. All fair value changes were recognised before the sale and as such, the transaction has no impact on the Company’s profit or loss or total equity,” the company said. 

BW LPG is among the world’s leading owner and operator of LPG vessels, with a fleet of about 50 Very Large Gas Carriers (VLGCs), including over 20 vessels powered by LPG dual-fuel propulsion technology. 

During February 2024, BW LPG had invested approximately US$30 million in Confidence Petroleum India through a preferential allotment of equity shares. 

The investment was to support Confidence as it was to expand its capacity in LPG downstream assets. Confidence, at that time had over 60 LPG bottling plants and over 200 auto LPG dispensing stations across India. 

Kristian Sørensen, CEO of BW LPG says: “CPIL has played a meaningful role in supporting the development of LPG infrastructure and distribution in India, a market with strong and growing energy demand. As BW LPG divests its non-controlling interest, we remain confident in CPIL’s future and wish the management team continued success in executing their strategy.”

PGIM LAUNCHES GLOBAL PRIVATE CREDIT FUND FOR WEALTH INVESTORS

PGIM, the $1.4 trillion global asset management business of Prudential Financial, has launched the PGIM Global Private Credit Fund for wealth investors in the UK, continental Europe and Asia. 

The lead portfolio manager is PGIM’s global head of middle market direct lending, Matthew Harvey, who also oversees the broader investment team, the company said.

The fund aims to deliver income, long-term capital appreciation and global diversification by investing in senior secured loans to middle market companies in North America, Europe and Australia. While sector agnostic, it focuses on stable, less cyclical industries and generally avoids those that are highly levered, volatile or heavily regulated.

“The investment team focuses on seeking value in middle market lending by targeting companies with EBITDA of US$10 to US$75 million. This segment of the market typically has spreads that are higher and covenant protections that are stronger than other areas of direct lending and can deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns,” the company added. 

“With a significant portion of the portfolio allocated to non-sponsored loans from privately held companies, the fund can provide wealth investors access to a broader, more diverse segment of the market and a portfolio that is complementary to those that focus solely on private equity-sponsored loans,” PMI noted.

 “Our new fund leverages a differentiated strategy built on broad loan and sector diversification, a targeted middle market focus, global reach and deep, local origination access,” Harvey said. 

Matt Shafer, head of international wealth at PGIM, added: “As more wealth investors turn to private credit, we believe that we can deliver the expertise, alignment and differentiation that they are looking for through drawing upon over two decades of experience managing direct lending strategies for institutional investors.”

TIK TOK FOUNDER ZHANG YIMING SURPASSES MUKESH AMBANI TO BECOME ASIA’S SECOND-RICHEST PERSON

Zhang Yiming, founder of Bytedance which operates Tik Tok, surpassed Mukesh Ambani to become Asia’s second-richest person after a rise in ByteDance Ltd.’s valuation and further progress in the Chinese firm’s AI ambitions, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

“Zhang’s net worth climbed to $92.8 billion, cementing his position as China’s richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The ByteDance co-founder’s fortune swelled more than sevenfold since Bloomberg started tracking his wealth in March 2019, when he was worth $13 billion,” Bloomberg said.

The surge comes amid the success of ByteDance’s video app TikTok, as well as its Doubao AI chatbot, which has amassed more than 300 million monthly users to become China’s most popular. ByteDance also earlier this year transferred parts of its US business to American investors, Bloomberg added.

Zhang’s wealth jumped by more than $24 billion after Bloomberg analyzed valuations from investors BlackRock Inc., Fidelity Investments and T. Rowe Price Group Inc. and those given by HSG and General Atlantic last month. 

Meantime, Ambani dropped to the third-richest in Asia, the Bloomberg index showed, with a net worth of $86.9 billion. Gautam Adani retained the region’s top spot at $117.4 billion.

GORILLA TECHNOLOGY ANNOUNCES $2 BILLION AI INFRASTRUCTURE DEAL IN INDIA WITH SUPERMICRO

Gorilla Technology Group Wednesday said it has secured closure of an AI infrastructure deal in India with Super Micro Computer, valued at approximately US$2 billion for 20,736 B300 cards, 5,120 B200 cards, networking equipment & related infrastructure. 

“This transaction reflects ongoing deployments supporting large-scale AI data centre and GPU infrastructure programs in India, including major hyperscale and sovereign AI initiatives and establishes both companies as key enablers of next-generation AI compute capacity in the region,” the company said. 

In addition to the closed deal, Supermicro and Gorilla will collaborate further to pursue multi-billion-dollar AI infrastructure opportunities across India and Asia Pacific, including Southeast Asia and other high-growth markets.

Jay Chandan, Chairman & CEO, Gorilla Technology – “This collaboration is not theoretical for Gorilla. Across our two current Yotta deployments in India alone, we are already supporting approximately US$2 billion of GPU and networking infrastructure procurement. That gives real weight to this relationship and demonstrates the scale of the opportunity in front of us. As demand for sovereign AI and large scale compute infrastructure accelerates across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, India, the Philippines, Japan and Taiwan, we believe Supermicro will be a key partner in helping us execute against a much broader regional and global pipeline with the potential for several billions of dollars of additional infrastructure demand over time. The opportunity is not limited to one country or one customer. It is a platform opportunity across the fastest growing AI infrastructure markets in Asia.”

HANDSHAKE FINANCE RAISES PRE-SEED CAPITAL TO BUILD ESCROW-AS-A-SERVICE IN SINGAPORE

Handshake Finance, the Singapore-based fintech company building escrow-as-a-service infrastructure for high-trust service industries, Wednesday said it has closed a S$500,000 pre-seed funding round. 

The capital will accelerate the company’s expansion across its beachhead renovation and interior design market in Singapore, with longer-term ambitions to extend its platform across other service industries where payment trust remains a structural problem.

Handshake operates on bank-grade payment infrastructure provided by MAS-regulated partners. All payment flows are fully MAS regulated, and funds are held with DBS in segregated escrow accounts. For the founders, this is not a checkbox — it is the entire foundation of the business.

“We are trying to solve a structural trust gap in service industries. But before any of that, our users have to trust us,” said Christopher Chan, Co-Founder of Handshake Finance. “Making sure every fund flow is fully compliant, and that our users feel completely assured handing us money in what are often life-changing transactions, is our number one priority. Everything else is built on top of that.”

The platform holds customer funds in escrow and releases them to service providers against agreed milestones, giving buyers protection from pre-payment risk while giving service providers the confidence to deliver. The model is designed to work across any service industry where the payment trust problem exists.

VCI GLOBAL PLANS TO ACQUIRE PT FINE CARBON CREDIT

Malaysia-based VCI Global Tuesday said it plans to acquire a controlling stake in PT Fine Carbon Credit Indonesia, an Indonesian carbon asset platform associated with approximately 241,000 hectares of forestry areas across four project sites in Indonesia.

VCI Global, a provider of AI infrastructure, GPU-as-a-Service, and cybersecurity solutions, did not disclose the financial terms of the transaction. 

The acquisition expands VCI Global’s AI infrastructure, carbon credit and real-world asset ecosystem strategy, further positioning the company at the convergence of digital infrastructure, sustainability-linked assets and tokenized real-world asset ecosystems.

“The management believes the forestry platform may support the future issuance of millions of carbon credits over the project lifecycle, subject to certification, verification methodologies, regulatory approvals and commercialization processes. Voluntary carbon credit prices have recently ranged from approximately US$10 to over US$50 per credit depending on project quality, certification standards and market demand,” VCI added.

VCI intends to evaluate phased certification, verification and commercialization pathways for the forestry assets in alignment with international carbon market standards.

VCI added that it currently expects at least one strategic ecosystem spin-off initiative to advance this year as part of its broader platform monetization strategy.

VCI Global believes carbon-linked environmental assets may become an increasingly important component within future AI infrastructure ecosystems as global digital expansion drives greater focus on sustainability, energy efficiency and long-term carbon management.

“Global AI infrastructure expansion is accelerating demand for sustainable and carbon-conscious digital ecosystems. We believe carbon-linked environmental assets will become an increasingly strategic component within next-generation AI infrastructure and digitally enabled RWA ecosystems,” said Audrey Liu, Chief Executive Officer of V Gallant Limited.

“With approximately 241,000 hectares of forestry assets across Indonesia, this platform strengthens our long-term AI infrastructure, carbon credit and RWA ecosystem strategy while supporting regional sustainability initiatives and the preservation of critical rainforest ecosystems.”

Under the definitive agreement, the transaction consideration will be satisfied through the issuance of V Gallant Class A and Class B Shares, subject to customary closing conditions, milestone-based verification procedures and shareholder protection mechanisms.

NIPPON LIFE TO ALLOCATE 1.5 TRILLION YEN FOR PRIVATE CREDIT IN PARTNERSHIP WITH BLACKSTONE

Nippon Life Insurance Wednesday said it anticipates allocating approximately 1.5 trillion yen (US$9.5 billion) in new capital to Blackstone for deployment in private credit and structured credit strategies over the next five years, through a new MoU. 

The pact with Blackstone  aims to provide investment management services in the private credit and real estate sectors. 

Through this partnership, Nippon Life group aims to access investment opportunities while enhancing the sophistication of its asset management capabilities with the objective of providing attractive risk-adjusted returns. 

Blackstone is among the world’s largest alternative asset managers with over $1.3 trillion in assets under management.

Blackstone invests thematically in real estate assets and is one of the largest foreign investors in Japan real estate. With the support of Blackstone, Nippon Life will seek to advance initiatives to maximize the value of its properties, targeting approximately a dozen properties including large-scale urban assets.

Satoshi Asahi, Representative Director & President, Nippon Life, said: “We view this comprehensive strategic partnership with Blackstone as a critically important initiative to significantly advance our group’s asset management strategy.”

Jon Gray, President & Chief Operating Officer, Blackstone, said: “We are deeply honored to further strengthen our relationship with Nippon Life group. This partnership represents one of the most significant multi-asset private credit partnerships in the Asia-Pacific region.”

AMTD ANNOUNCES THREE STRATEGIC ACQUISITIONS IN UK FOR $80 MILLION

Hong Kong headquartered conglomerate AMTD Group, which has presence spanning across media and entertainment, education and training, and premium assets and hospitality sectors, Wednesday said it is committing a cumulative $80 million to acquire three properties across hospitality and office space segments.

AMTD said it acquired a hospitality property – the Dao by Dorsett Hornsey Hotel for approximately US$30 million. Following completion of the acquisition, the hotel will be renamed AMTD Dao by Dorsett Hornsey, becoming AMTD’s fifth branded hotel, alongside AMTD hotels in Hong Kong, New York, Singapore, and Malaysia. 

In conjunction with the hotel acquisition, it also said it entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the historic Hornsey Town Hall, a 1930s London civic landmark comprising an Assembly Hall, Council Chamber, Committee Room, rooftop bar, cinema, town hall square and a variety of flexible event spaces and workspaces, for US$33 million. 

The company further added that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the London office tower located at 40 Furnival Street, London for a total effective consideration of around US$17 million.

The building comprises approximately 9,646 sq ft (896.1 sq m) of Grade A office and ancillary accommodation across lower ground, ground, and five upper floors, and includes a roof terrace on the fifth floor. Upon completion of the acquisition, the property is expected to serve as one of the global headquarters of AMTD, The Art Newspaper, and L’Officiel, further strengthening AMTD’s presence and ecosystem in the UK and globally.