Global investment firm Lanstead has today announced its A$4 million investment in SmartTrans Holdings Limited (“SmartTrans”) (ASX: SMA) to fund the expansion of their e-commerce platforms and facilitate the rollout of their SmartPay payments platform in Australia and China.
SmartTrans recently announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Shanghai Stock Exchange-listed digital marketing and e-commerce agency, Shanghai Dodoca Information Technology Co., Ltd (Guangzhou-Weiyue Information Technology Co. Ltd (Dodoca)), to launch and operate a WeChat e-commerce market place to promote and sell premium Australian products to Chinese consumers.
SmartTrans is also planning to expand its SmartPay platform into the Australian market to process payments made by inbound Chinese tourists wanting to use their existing payment infrastructure “WeChat, UnionPay and AliPay” to procure goods and services when travelling in Australia, consequently establishing and forging a connection between Australian businesses and Chinese consumers. Funds raised under this placement will also be used to market and provide the SmartPay infrastructure to Australia-based retailers and tourism operators in Australia.
SmartTrans will receive A$600,000 from Lanstead up-front and the remaining A$3.4 million from Lanstead will be invested in Sharing Agreements, which will enable SmartTrans to receive those proceeds on a pro-rata monthly basis over 18 months.
“We are attracted to SmartTrans’s business model and its well-established operations in China, built up over the last decade. We believe the Company is only just beginning to benefit from its investment in establishing its entrenched presence in China as a trusted foreign company. There is an excellent opportunity for Lanstead to fund this future growth and benefit in the upside along with the existing shareholder base,” Lanstead’s Co-Founder Greg Kofford said.
The Sharing Agreements are subject to adjustments upwards and downwards each month depending on SmartTrans share price at the time, providing SmartTrans with the opportunity to benefit from positive future share price performance.
“These new funds give us the necessary financial flexibility to significantly scale up the WeChat market place and build a platform with very high consumer recognition in China and high visibility and trust with Australian merchants. With significant partnerships in place and being developed, we are very confident that the platform will have excellent visibility. We also see significant scope to expand our SmartPay payments platform into the Australian market so Chinese tourists can use their existing payments infrastructure when travelling in Australia establishing that important first link between Australian businesses and Chinese consumers, facilitating future online transactions. We expect this to be very well supported by local retailers and tour operators. China’s tourism market presents significant scope for growth for SmartTrans and we are only just starting to recognise its potential,” SmartTrans Managing Director, Brian Carr said.
Lanstead is a global investment firm that provides funding for ongoing business objectives to listed small and mid-cap growth companies. Lanstead focuses on equity investments in companies already listed on the ASX, LSE/AIM or European exchanges and on management teams with a clear growth strategy.
Since 2007, Lanstead has completed over 40 equity placings with our accompanying sharing agreement to reward growth.
Many of the companies with Lanstead on the shareholder register have benefited substantially from the accompanying sharing agreement, receiving more cash than the original placement proceeds without having to issue any additional shares.
Forward-looking statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Such statements involve known and unknown risks and important factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the investments to be materially different from the statements in this announcement.
