SingEx-Sphere will together offer a combined portfolio of events management, venue and consultancy businesses. Photo Credit:Temasek and Singapore Press Holdings Limited
Singapore's SingEx Holdings and Sphere Exhibits have merged to form
SingEx-Sphere, in a move to grow the company's presence in the regional
MICE market for hybrid events.
The two MICE players — subsidiaries of Temasek and Singapore Press
Holdings Limited (SPH) respectively — will together offer a combined
portfolio of events management, venue and consultancy businesses.
The former will hold 60% of shares, while SPH owns 40%.
Recently appointed chairman of SingEx Holdings, Robin Hu, who is now
chairman of SingEx-Sphere, pointed out that "events and exhibitions
remain the most robust marketing channels for businesses around the
world. Both SingEx and Sphere Exhibits, with over five decades of
combined experience in organising and hosting trade and consumer shows
across a variety of sectors, have built a strong foundation for the MICE
scene in Singapore and our region".
Singapore in particular, has managed to maintain its status as a
dynamic business hub, having held 29 MICE event pilots as of 31 December
2020 — despite being thrown into the Covid whirlwind.
Delegates travelling to the Lion City trialled new wearable
technologies, contact tracing, and testing protocols. Events like
TravelRevive, the Singapore FinTech Festival, and Singapore Food
Festival also adopted hybrid formats.
"We believe Covid, while having a dampening impact in the short term,
has given rise to new opportunities in the form of hybrid activities
hitherto unimagined," Hu said. "Our industry is fast becoming a
digitally-enabled intellectual property business. Those who are
adaptable, nimble and unafraid to reinvent will succeed.”
Moving forward, SingEx-Sphere will add new events and exhibitions to
its portfolio, via organic curation and inorganic investments.
SingEx has a 40-year record of event and venue experience, and
manages venues such as Singapore EXPO and MAX Atria. In 2020, the
company built broadcast and digital studio capabilities, and used its
experience housing recovering Covid-19 patients to set up stringent
measures for venue management.
Sphere Exhibits, which started in 2008, operates more than 35
consumer and trade events in Singapore, Malaysia, China, Indonesia,
Myanmar and the Philippines. Genres cover the gamut, from Asian Masters
and Beerfest Asia, to BuildTech Asia, Health Fiesta and consumer tech
exhibitions such as COMEX and the IT Show.
“We look forward to working with Temasek to achieve SingEx-Sphere’s
vision and push the MICE industry in Asia-Pacific to greater heights for
the benefit of both consumers and businesses. This merger will allow us
to tap on each other’s expertise, resources and networks to seize new
opportunities to enhance the portfolio and achieve growth regionally,"
said Ng Yat Chung, CEO of SPH.