Day: 21st April, 2021

• Qatar-based Doha Venture Capital has participated in a $235 million funding round for Singapore-based exhibition entertainment experience provider Cityneon.
• The round, which was led by Cityneon’s existing investors including Singapore’s Pavilion Capital, Ron Tan, Cityneon’s executive chairman and Group CEO, as well as EDBI, also saw backing from Seatown Holdings, along with other financial institutions and family offices in Singapore and China.
• The company has recently acquired the licensing rights for a global touring exhibition inspired by James Cameron’s Avatar. Cityneon will debut a multi-sensory Avatar exhibition in China in May 2021.
• Cityneon will use the proceeds for capital expenditure that includes building more of its various intellectual property (IP) exhibition sets.
• Cityneon plans to launch in more than 50 cities by the end of this year, welcoming 10 million unique visitors across the world by 2022.

Press release

Cityneon Holdings “Cityneon”, the “Company”/collectively with its subsidiaries, the “Group”) raised S$235 million in the most recent round of private funding. The latest round of funding adds seasoned investors to Cityneon’s already strong stable of shareholders.

This funding round was led by Singapore’s Pavilion Capital, Seatown Holdings International, EDBI, and Cityneon’s Executive Chairman & Group CEO, Mr. Ron Tan. EDBI and Pavilion Capital are existing shareholders of Cityneon whilst new investors include Seatown Holdings International, Qatar’s Doha Venture Capital, which will now own approximately 4 per cent of the Group, and other financial institutions and family offices in Singapore and China.

These now join other existing Cityneon shareholders CITIC Capital, veteran entrepreneur and investor Mr. Johnson Ko, and Executive Chairman & Group CEO Mr. Ron Tan to form a new and strong shareholder base for the Group. Mr. Johnson Ko and Mr. Ron Tan remain as the largest shareholders of the company via their combined entity, West Knighton Limited.

The Group is now well positioned for its next growth chapter and will use the proceeds for capital expenditure that includes building more of its various intellectual property (IP) exhibition sets, totaling 24 travelling and four semi-permanent sets under the Studio IP partnerships and three travelling sets under the original artefact IP partnerships by the end of 2022.

Already, the Group just signed its fifth IP rights with Avatar from 20th Century Studios last year. Amidst the anticipation from Avatar fans worldwide, Cityneon will debut a multi-sensory Avatar exhibition in Chengdu, China in May 2021, ahead of the Avatar movie sequel which is slated for release in 2022. Avatar is the world’s top grossing film of all time at over US$2.8 billion, and adding millions more after its successful re-release in China in March 2021. Avatar’s director James Cameron has announced that he will be producing four sequels with 20th Century Studios, with the first sequel slated for release next year. Disney acquired 20th Century Studios for US$71 billion in 2019.

The Company also recently entered the original artefacts IPs space and will stage international exhibitions of the treasures of the ancient civilization Machu Picchu from Peru in Boca Raton, Florida and Pharaoh Ramses II from Egypt in Houston, Texas. These two experiences will start welcoming visitors in October and November 2021, respectively.

Other IP rights that the Group holds include partnerships with Universal Studios for Jurassic World: The Exhibition, Marvel for Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N., Lionsgate for The Hunger Games: The Exhibition and Hasbro for Transformers Autobot Alliance. All in, Cityneon holds the IP rights for five of the top 10 worldwide box office hits and two artefacts IP from Peru and Egypt. The Group expects to have six sets of its various IP rights travelling across China, and five travelling and permanent sets in the United States, with a few more in other parts of the globe.

The Group will also be reopening experiences that were temporarily closed in 2020, aiming to provide visitors with a safe entertainment option. These include the Marvel Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. in Toronto, Canada that will be re-opening in May 2021; and the Marvel Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. exhibition in Lotte Mall in Seoul, Korea in April 2021; the same exhibition space which previously housed Jurassic World: The Exhibition, another IP experience exhibition by the Group in 2019. In the past month, the Group also witnessed record visitor numbers at their semi-permanent installations in Las Vegas, USA, signaling a strong comeback and demand for their immersive experiences, as they step into the 6th year of operations there.

While there are exciting plans lined up, the Group is not resting on its laurels. More Hollywood IPs and artefact IPs can be expected, and there will be further announcements on new IP verticals in entertainment experiences that the Group is looking to enter.

Mr. Ron Tan, Executive Chairman & Group CEO of Cityneon, said: “It is exciting that the Company is going through such strategic expansion as one of the largest providers of exhibition entertainment experiences globally. The S$235 million funding round sets a solid foundation for us to invest in developing more of our entertainment experiences, to stage even more exhibitions of the five box office hits and two artefact IPs that we hold the rights to all over the world. I’m thankful that our strong investors base, now from Singapore, Hong Kong, China and the Middle East, have trust in our vision, and believe alongside us that this space of big ideas and big experiences will only grow.”

By the end of this year, Cityneon will arguably be the largest provider of exhibition entertainment experiences internationally; with global footprints in more than 50 cities and welcoming 10 million unique visitors across the world by 2022.

With its global reach and international partnerships, Cityneon has the capability to serve its clients anywhere in the world. Cityneon was listed on the Mainboard of the Singapore Stock Exchange since 2005, and was privatized on February 2019 by West Knighton Limited, a company wholly owned by Cityneon’s Executive Chairman and Group CEO, Ron Tan, together with Hong Kong veteran entrepreneur and investor, Johnson Ko Chun Shun. Johnson is a capital markets veteran and has held controlling interests and directorships in many listed companies. In May 2019, Cityneon welcomed CITIC Capital as a new shareholder, who holds approximately 10% shares in Cityneon. CITIC Capital is part of CITIC Group, one of China’s largest conglomerates, and has over US$25b of assets under its management across 100 funds and investment products globally. Other institutional shareholders of the Group include EDBI – a Singapore government-linked global investor, and Pavilion Capital – a Singapore-based investment institution which focuses on private equity investments, that made strategic investments in August and October 2019 respectively, to support the Group’s further expansion globally. For more information, please visit www.arc.cityneongroup.com.

Cityneon, a Singapore-based entertainment company that focuses on interior design, events, and exhibition experiences, on Wednesday announced raising S$235 million ($177 million) in its latest private fundraising round

In an announcement, the CITIC Capital-backed firm said the funding round was backed by existing investors Pavillion Capital and EDBI, and new investors Seatown Holdings International, Qatar’s Doha Venture Capital, and Cityneon’s executive chairman and group CEO Ron Tan.

The funding comes right after Cityneon acquired multi-year licensing rights for James Cameron’s Avatar touring exhibition and forayed into the original artefacts IPs space.

Cityneon will debut a multi-sensory Avatar exhibition in Chengdu, China in May 2021, ahead of the Avatar movie sequel, which is slated for release in 2022. Avatar is the world’s top-grossing film of all time at over $2.8 billion.

It will stage international exhibitions of the treasures of the ancient civilization Machu Picchu from Peru in Boca Raton, Florida and Pharaoh Ramses II from Egypt in Houston, Texas.

Cityneon said it will use the proceeds of the latest fundraising round for capital expenditure, including the building of more IP exhibition sets, totaling 24 traveling and four semi-permanent sets, among others.

“The S$235 million funding round sets a solid foundation for us to invest in developing more of our entertainment experiences, to stage even more exhibitions of the five box office hits and two artefact IPs that we hold the rights to all over the world,” said group CEO Tan.

By the end of this year, Cityneon said it will become the largest provider of exhibition entertainment experiences internationally with a presence in more than 50 cities and welcoming 10 million unique visitors across the world by 2022.

In May 2019, Cityneon welcomed CITIC Capital as a new shareholder with an approximately 10% stake. CITIC Capital is part of CITIC Group, one of China’s largest conglomerates, and has over $25 billion of assets under its management across 100 funds and investment products globally.

Cityneon raised $235 million in the most recent round of private funding from Pavilion Capital, Seatown Holdings International, EDBI and Ron Tan, Executive Chairman and Group CEO of Cityneon. EDBI and Pavilion Capital are existing shareholders of Cityneon whilst new investors include Seatown Holdings International, Qatar’s Doha Venture Capital, and other financial institutions and family offices in Singapore and China. According to ACRA, these are Newyard (family office of Yangzijiang Shipbuilding’s major shareholders Ren Yuanlin and his family), Saliendra (the investment arm of GK Goh), Evolve Capital, ICH, and Alan Wang.

Seatown and Pavilion Capital together with EDBI to around 12.19%. Doha Venture Capital holds 4%, Citic 8.25% and the major stake is still held by West Knighton, a joint venture between Tan and Johnson Ko, a Hong Kong-based businessman.

Cityneon will use the proceeds for capital expenditure that includes building more of its various intellectual property (IP) exhibition sets, totaling 24 travelling and four semi-permanent sets under the Studio IP partnerships and three travelling sets under the original artefact IP partnerships by the end of 2022.

Already, the Group just signed its fifth IP rights with Avatar from 20th Century Studios last year. Cityneon will debut a multi-sensory Avatar exhibition in Chengdu in May 2021, ahead of the Avatar movie sequel which is slated for release in 2022. Avatar is the world’s top grossing film of all time at over US$2.8 billion, and adding millions more after its successful re-release in China in March 2021. Avatar’s director James Cameron has announced that he will be producing four sequels with 20th Century Studios, with the first sequel slated for release next year. Disney acquired 20th Century Studios for US$71 billion in 2019.

The Company also recently entered the original artefacts IPs space and will stage international exhibitions of the treasures of the ancient civilization Machu Picchu from Peru in Boca Raton, Florida and Pharaoh Ramses II from Egypt in Houston, Texas. These two experiences will start welcoming visitors in October and November 2021, respectively.

Other IP rights that the Group holds include partnerships with Universal Studios for Jurassic World: The Exhibition, Marvel for Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N., Lionsgate for The Hunger Games: The Exhibition and Hasbro for Transformers Autobot Alliance. All in, Cityneon holds the IP rights for five of the top 10 worldwide box office hits and two artefacts IP from Peru and Egypt. The Group expects to have six sets of its various IP rights travelling across China, and five travelling and permanent sets in the United States, with a few more in other parts of the globe.

CITYNEON has obtained a S$235 million shot in the arm in its recently closed private fundraising round from existing investors such as Temasek’s Pavilion Capital and EDBI, as well as new investors such as Seatown Holdings (also owned by Temasek), Qatar’s Doha Venture Capital, and other financial institutions and family offices in Singapore and China.

The funds raised will tip the value of the global experience entertainment company, which delisted from the Singapore Exchange (SGX) in February 2019 at a market capitalisation of S$300 million or so, to more than S$1 billion.

“We’re a unicorn,” executive chairman and Group CEO Ron Tan joked, of the company that was founded in 1956. Proceeds will go towards building more intellectual property (IP) exhibition sets, as the group charts an aggressive growth path in 2021, taking advantage of captive domestic audiences by launching more exhibitions, including in nascent markets such as Japan, Brazil and Canada.

Last year was a “scary” and “worrying” year, Mr Tan said, especially in the months when countries were locked down and the group generated zero revenue.

But the recovery was also swift, he noted, with China’s recovery beginning last year leading the region to contribute about 70 per cent of the group’s total revenue in 2020, while visitors in Las Vegas have hit record highs in the past six weeks, as more people got vaccinated and con dence about public health safety improved.

Cityneon is launching its Jurassic World exhibition in Dallas, Texas this June and has seen strong forward bookings, too. Mr Tan expects the US to contribute more than two- fths of its revenue this and next year, given the tremendous activity there.

Currently, under its Hollywood IP partnership vertical, Cityneon’s exhibition sets have gone to more than 50 cities around the world. With ve IPs under its belt (Avengers, Jurassic World, Hunger Games, Transformers and Avatar) and two more by year-end, it is the world’s largest Hollywood IP partner, capturing more than 30 per cent of the market share.

Mr Tan has always emphasised the two criteria that IPs must meet before Cityneon will consider acquiring them: first, box-office takings need to be at least US$1 billion; second, the movie must have a sequel.

Cityneon is also building up its second vertical now, partnering governments to debut exhibitions of rare, original artefacts that focus on ancient civilisations for history buffs. This is its own IP and “needs patience and capital” to grow, he said.

It has a third vertical up its sleeves – immersive exhibitions related to the world of e-gaming, to appeal to the millennial crowd. His dream is that by the end of 2022, the group will have 10 million unique visitors per year – double its present numbers of close to five million visitors.

The group has also grown via acquisitions. In January 2020, it announced its acquisition of Animax Designs, a global firm which produces animatronic characters. This segment is hiring engineers now to enhance the technology behind its entertainment robotics that is so critical to its exhibitions.

Asked about his listing plans, Mr Tan replied that he prefers to focus on the business first and let the rest “take care of itself”. “We have been approached. I mean, it’s tempting because right now we are quite an interesting, sexy company. But we are market-neutral about Singapore, Hong Kong or the US, as long as it is a major stock exchange market. The board will have to come up with a collective decision where we want to go,” he said.

But he also clarified categorically that: “I’m not the kind to leave SGX and seek an arbitrage and go to Hong Kong.”

Some such as Osim International, Time Watch, Luye Pharma and Want Want have made such a geographical switch, while other dual-listed ones such as Alibaba Pictures Group, Fortune Reit and Genting Hong Kong have given up their secondary listing in Singapore to focus on their primary listing in Hong Kong.

Cityneon had delisted at its peak at S$1.30 per share, citing reasons such as the tensions of di􀀁erent expectations from different groups of shareholders. Mr Tan said that since then, management has value added to the business. “I hope that this company will one day be worth S$5 billion to S$7 billion, similar to the size at which Lego’s founding family and Blackstone bought Merlin at (US$7.5 billion).

“Right now, I really want to make this into the world’s largest experience entertainment provider. And in order to do that, we need to have access to capital. In order to become competitive and noticeable on the world stage, we will need to tap into public markets at some point.”

The Edge, in a February article, cited from a term sheet it has seen, that Cityneon’s FY20 revenue was about US$79 million, Ebitda was US$26 million, while net profit was just US$1 million.

However, a big jump is expected for FY21, with forecast revenue surging to US$215 million; Ebitda to US$88 million, and net income to about US$45 million.

The term sheet also said that Cityneon’s pre-financing valuation was S$850 million, translating to S$3.03 per share. It has plans for an initial public offering no later than the second quarter of 2023, at a valuation of at least S$1.32 billion.

Such ambitions are also reflected in its plans to build more travelling and semi-permanent sets, and targets to launch six experiences in China and five in the US by the end of 2021. This year, it also plans to reopen experiences that were temporarily closed in 2020, such as in Toronto, Canada, and Seoul, Korea.

The size of its exhibitions at about 20,000 to 30,000 square feet work in its favour for practising safe distancing as the pandemic persists in some countries. Meanwhile, consumers restless from not being to travel seem to be flocking to these experiences for entertainment. “People are starting to co-exist with Covid-19,” Mr Tan said.

Mr Tan, along with veteran Hong Kong entrepreneur Johnson Ko, remain the largest shareholders of the company after the fundraising exercise. They were the ones that took the company private by their vehicle, West Knighton, in 2019.

Singapore has long been too small a market without the critical mass its exhibitions need to do well, but Mr Tan added that he has plans to bring in “a big IP” next year as a showcase to Singaporeans. “But also to show my mother what I do,” he added.