After Singer stake, Jay Mart eyes another M&A deal this year

JMART acquired 24.99 per cent shares of Singer Thailand worth around Bt945 million from the latter’s major shareholder Singer (Thailand) BV. This makes it Singer Thailand’s largest shareholder.
Adisak, who is the largest shareholder with 12.48 per cent of JMART, said that the synergy of JMART group and Singer Thailand would drive both to further business growth and cost savings.
JMART group has targeted revenue growth of 10 per cent this year from the Bt8.956.98 billion last year, according to Adisak. Singer Thailand’s chief executive officer Boonyong Tansakul expected Singer’s revenue to grow between five to 10 per cent this year from Bt3.440 billion last year.
JMART’s businesses range from wholesale and retail distribution of mobile phones to debt collection and the retail space rental, while Singer Thailand is the distributor of various electrical products and appliances under the SINGER brand and trademark. It also provides hire purchase sales through its subsidiary, Singer Leasing (Thailand). The synergy boosts the number of their combined shops nationwide to 472, of which 255 shops belong to JMART.
JMART will capitalise on Singer’s sales network nationwide to foster its mobile phone sales channels.
In the initial stage, JMART will open its booths in 5-10 of Singer’s showrooms in the third quarter this year before rising to 50 shops in the fourth quarter this year and to 100 next year. It forecast revenue from mobile-phone sales at these synergy shops at around Bt100 million this year before reaching Bt1 billion next year.
JMART ‘s debt collection and non-performing loan management subsidiary JMT Services will provide services to Singer, which hopes to lower its non-performing loans from this collaboration.
JMART share price yesterday surged 1.89 per cent to close at Bt10.80, while Singer rose 2.86 per cent to close at Bt14.40.