SINGAPORE & LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Saban Capital Group, a leading global media and communications investment firm, today announced the opening of a new office in Singapore by its wholly-owned subsidiary, Saban Capital Group (Asia) Pte Ltd. The office is led by Sumeet Jaisinghani, who has re-located to Singapore from Saban Capital Group’s Hong Kong office.
Saban Capital Group began investing in Asia in 2010 and has five portfolio investments in the region:
- Media Nusantara Citra (IDX: MNCN) – Southeast Asia’s largest, vertically-integrated media company;
- MNC Sky Vision (IDX: MSKY) – Indonesia’s dominant pay TV operator;
- Celestial Tiger Entertainment – a joint venture with Astro and Lionsgate on pay TV channels and content creation and distribution across Asia;
- Taomee (NYSE: TAOM) – the largest children’s online entertainment company in China; and
- Global Mediacom (IDX: BMTR) – Indonesia’s largest media holding company and the controlling shareholder of both Media Nusantara Citra and MNC Sky Vision.
Mr. Jaisinghani, who joined Saban Capital Group in 2008, has been involved with all of the firm’s investments in Asia.
Haim Saban, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Saban Capital Group, said, “Since we began investing in Asia in 2010, we have assembled a portfolio that includes partnerships with outstanding entrepreneurs, operating executives and leading business groups in the region, and is highly complementary with our relationships and investments outside of Asia. We have a strong desire to increase our capital commitment to Asia and further expand the footprint of our investment franchise.”
Adam Chesnoff, President and Chief Operating Officer of Saban Capital Group, said, “The opening of our office in Singapore highlights our continued focus on expanding our investment presence in Asia and, in particular, the increased emphasis that we have placed on Southeast Asia and India. We believe that our approach as strategic investors in media and communications, with a permanent base of capital, provides significant differentiation and added value to leading entrepreneurs and business groups in the region.”
Sumeet Jaisinghani, Director, Saban Capital Group (Asia), said, “We are excited about the opening of our Singapore office, which will result in closer touch points with investment activity in Southeast Asia and India. We will continue to be opportunistic on the investments that we seek and are open to a variety of growth equity, active minority investments and co-control situations. In addition to Southeast Asia and India, we are also looking selectively at opportunities in North Asia.” In the Singapore office, Mr. Jaisinghani will continue to oversee an investment team dedicated to transaction sourcing and execution.
Saban Capital Group was established in 2001 by Haim Saban and its private equity investments outside of Asia have included: Univision Communications, the largest Hispanic media company in the United States; Partner Communications (TASE and NASDAQ: PTNR), a leading mobile operator in Israel; Saban Brands, a wholly-owned global intellectual property and entertainment platform; Bezeq Telecommunications (TASE: BEZQ), the incumbent telecom operator in Israel; and ProSiebenSat.1 (FSE: PSM), the largest television broadcast company in Germany.