WITHIN 1 hour after the Singapore stock market opened on Wednesday (Apr 13), there was brisk trading among Hatten Land' s ($ Hatten Land : PH0 +2.22%) shares following its announcement that it was rebranding its mall in Melaka, Malaysia into an e-sports hub and would be issuing new shares to raise S$5 million to fund this development.

 

Shares of the property developer rose 6.7 per cent, or S$0.003 to S$0.048, as at 9.36 am, with more than 13.5 million shares changing hands.

 

The volume of shares traded continued rising, crossing over 18 million transactions after 10 am, making it the fourth most active counter in early Wednesday trade.

 

No married deals were recorded in early trade, according to ShareInvestor data.

 

The Catalist-listed company announced before market opened that it will be rebranding Elements Mall in Melaka into an e-sports hub, comprising hotel accommodation, as well as an e-sports arena which has livestreaming and other facilities for professional players.

 

To fund this new business strategy, the property developer said in a bourse filing that it will be raising S$5 million by issuing close to 122 million new shares, at S$0.041 per share.

 

This issue price is an 8.89 per cent discount to Hatten Land' s last closing price of S$0.045 on Apr 8, which was the last day its shares were being traded before a trading halt was requested on Apr 11.

 

Compared to the 5-day volume-weighted average price of S$0.0456 per share till Apr 8, the issue price of S$0.041 is at a 10 per cent discount.

 

The new shares will be issued to 10 investors, who had agreed to subscribe to them on Apr 11.

 

The trading halt was lifted before market opened on Wednesday.

 

The placement shares will represent about 7.03 per cent of Hatten Land' s existing 1.74 billion shares, and about 6.57 per cent of the company' s enlarged 1.86 billion shares upon the completion of this exercise.

 

After deducting estimated expenses of about S$18,000, the net amount of funds raised would be about S$4.98 million, out of which 70 per cent will be allocated to fund Hatten Land' s new business initiatives, including the e-sports hub, known as Element X.

 

The rest will be used for the company' s daily operations.