SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) - Hatten Land said on Wednesday (April 13) that it will be rebranding Elements Mall in Melaka, Malaysia into an e-sports hub.

To fund this new business strategy, the property developer said in a bourse filing that it will be raising $5 million by issuing close to 122 million new shares, at 4.1 cents per share.

The company’s shares jumped 0.3 cent or 6.7 per cent to 4.8 cents on Wednesday morning after the news. The stock  pared gains to trade 2.2 per cent higher at 4.6 cents at 10.57am

The new shares' issue price is an 8.89 per cent discount to Hatten Land's last closing price of 4.5 cents on April 8, which was the last day its shares were traded before a trading halt was requested on April 11.

Compared with the five-day volume weighted average price of 4.56 cents per share till April 8, the issue price of 4.1 cents is at a 10 per cent discount.

The new shares will be issued to 10 investors, who had agreed to subscribe to them on April 11.

Among them is Mr Toh Soon Huat, a Singaporean philanthropist serving as the chairman of the Sian Chay Medical Institution. He subscribed to close to 61 million of placement shares, the most among the 10 investors.

Ms Priscil Poh Ly-May, the founder of design company P'art 1 Design, subscribed to about 19.5 million shares, while investment holdings company Hills Holdings bought close to 12.2 million shares.

The Catalist-listed company said that the price was decided after arm's length negotiations with the 10 investors, who do not have any interest in the company's investments or hold any directorship, but were introduced to Hatten by common business associates and had expressed interest in investing in the company.

The placement shares will represent about 7.03 per cent of Hatten Land's existing 1.74 billion shares, and about 6.57 per cent of the enlarged 1.86 billion shares upon the completion of this exercise.

After deducting estimated expenses of about $18,000, the net amount of funds raised would be about $4.98 million, out of which 70 per cent will be allocated to fund Hatten Land's new business initiatives, including the e-sports hub, known as Element X.

The rest will be used for the company's daily operations.

Hatten Land said that converting Elements Mall into South-east Asia's first large-scale integrated e-sports hub is in line with the company's efforts to pivot to growth trends in the digital economy.

It said that the hub will comprise hotel accommodation, as well as an e-sports arena including live-streaming and other facilities for professional players, among other attractions.

Located in the city centre of Melaka, the new e-sports hub encompasses a gross floor area of 1.88 million sq ft of retail space spanning across 13 floors.