Temasek Holdings has formed a joint venture with StarHub to set up a cyber security firm that will offer services to enterprises and governments around the world.
Ensign InfoSecurity, as the venture is called, is a merger between cyber security firms Quann, a Temasek unit, and two StarHub subsidiaries Accel Systems and Technologies, and Cyber Security Centre of Excellence.
Temasek holds 60 per cent of Ensign and StarHub owns the rest.
Ensign executive chairman Lee Fook Sun will oversee around 500 cyber security specialists who will operate from Singapore.
Mr Lee, who is also Quann's executive chairman and chairman of the Building and Construction Authority, was president of ST Electronics from 2009 to 2016.
He said yesterday: "Ensign will be uniquely positioned to integrate the expertise from our founding partners, as well as develop new capabilities, to ensure our clients have the most robust cyber defence capabilities... We are also fortunate to have the renewed leadership of a strong team to grow our capabilities further and take on market opportunities."
As part of the deal, Ensign will buy all of Accel Systems' 23 million shares and all 801 Quann shares.
It will also buy "certain cyber security business-related assets" from StarHub for $120 million, of which $16 million will be paid in cash. The rest will come from issuing 104 million new Ensign shares to StarHub at $1 apiece, or 40 per cent of Ensign's total issued shares.
Ensign will provide tailored cyber security services, including designing and building enterprise-wide solutions.
Its machine learning and proprietary big data capabilities will also provide clients with access to advanced threat detection and the ability to provide round-the-clock monitoring services through the largest security operation centre in the region, said Ensign.
The company plans to expand its focus on cyber analytics, develop global threat intelligence centres with partners and build cyber security research and development labs.
Ensign said it will initially support government and enterprise customers, and generate revenues of more than $100 million annually in cyber security solutions, systems integration and managed services.
It will also build on its core markets of Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, and expand regionally, it added.
