Fintonia Group

Singapore-based private equity firm Fintonia Group has led a management buyout of BlueScope Buildings' pre-engineered buildings business in Vietnam. The newly-formed Nova Buildings, headquartered in Singapore, will take over ownership and operations of BlueScope's key fabrication assets at Bien Hoa city in Dong Nai province, led by key operational team members who formerly managed facilities under BlueScope Buildings.

The plant will serve as Nova Buildings' key manufacturing site and export hub for South-east Asia. BlueScope Buildings is a global manufacturer of engineered building solutions.

Nova Buildings and Fintonia declined to comment on the size of the deal. But it could cost more than US$10 million (S$13.7 million) to build the same assets greenfield.

Creative Technology

Creative Technology has started taking orders for the first headphones to feature built-in technology based on its key Super X-Fi (SXFI) system.

The roll-out of the SXFI AIR headphone series comes after the release of Creative's SXFI headphone amplifier in September last year, which was the first product to feature the Singapore-based audio electronics maker's closely watched headphone holography technology. Beyond expanding the product range, the new gadgets will also feature better compatibility with other manufacturers' platforms, most notably Apple's iOS devices.

Creative shares fell four cents or 1.11 per cent to $3.55 yesterday.

Aspen (Group) Holdings

Malaysia developer Aspen (Group) Holdings has acquired approximately 45 acres of land in Bandar Cassia, Batu Kawan in Penang from Penang Development Corp at an aggregate consideration of RM98 million (S$32.3 million). The acquisition was made through an Aspen subsidiary and the parcel is intended to be developed as part of Aspen Vision City, as disclosed in Aspen's initial public offering documents in 2017.

A deposit of RM19.6 million had already been paid in 2017. The balance purchase price was paid using internal resources and through the full drawdown of the Islamic flexi term financing facility of RM70 million granted by Hong Leong Islamic Bank Berhad to the Aspen subsidiary.

Aspen shares closed at $0.124 yesterday.