David Loh, Han Seng Juan to focus on growing Centurion Investment
By VEN SREENIVASAN
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(SINGAPORE) Well-known brokers and cousins David Loh and Han Seng Juan have formally left the stockbroking business to focus on their boutique private equity investment business.
The two, considered among the most successful and influential stockbrokers here in the last few years, officially ended their stockbroking career when their trading licence formally lapsed last Wednesday.
Known as the A-Team within the industry or just simply 'David and Han', Mr Loh and Mr Han will now concentrate on growing Centurion Investment Management (CIM), a boutique Asian private equity company they helped set up in 2004 with other partners to invest in small to medium sized companies, especially in the Greater China region.
'It's been a tremendous ride for us in the last few years in the stockbroking industry, but it is time to look towards focusing our efforts on growing our investments and interests both in Singapore and in the region,' said Mr Loh, when contacted yesterday.
Mr Han added: 'Though stockbroking has been very fulfilling, we are not getting any younger and would like to take the next step towards a more proactive role in managing and expanding our investment portfolio.'
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Headquartered in Singapore, but with offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai, Centurion will take 'an opportunistic approach' rather than a country or industry-driven strategy to invest in fast growing Asian industries spanning food and beverage, consumer products, natural resources, manufacturing, properties and environmental projects.
It will continue to focus heavily on companies that are seeking funds for pre-listing financing, expansion or management buy-outs.
And given Mr Loh and Mr Han's experience, it is likely to have a strong emphasis on the Greater China region.
Companies Centurion has invested in during the past few years included Pine Agritech, China Hongxing Sports, Unionmet (Singapore), Synear Food Holdings and Li Heng Chemical Fibre Technologies.
In Singapore, Centurion has also been involved in property development, including Kovan Residences - a 521-unit condominium on a 190,000 square feet site at Simon Road.
Its other property projects include a housing site for foreign workers called Westlite Dormitory in Jurong and a 700 hectare golf resort in Vietnam. The company was also among the top three bidders recently for a small hotel site in Short Street.
The cousins joined the industry in the late eighties as fresh university graduates. Mr Han started out in UOB Securities, while Mr Loh was at Phillip Securities, and later joined UOB Kay Hian in 1996.
Mr Loh then went to Hong Kong to set up the broking firm's office there, while his cousin stayed in Singapore.
It was during this time that they built up relationships with institutional clients and corporates in Hong Kong and China, which enabled them to attract scores of China IPOs to Singapore during the boom years of 2005-08.
These connections will now come in handy as they embark on the next phase of their careers as private equity investors.
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