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Introduction (Corporate description of 8I Holdings)

8I Holdings Limited (ASX:8IH) is a public company listed in Australia, primarily engaged in the businesses of investment in public and private markets, fund management and financial education.

'''History ''' 8 Investment was established in 2008 by Clive Tan and Ken Chee. The vision of the company was to create a platform to share value investing knowledge and to empower growth through value investing.

Using value investing methodology, the Group achieved tremendous growth with its Education, Public and Private Markets Investment teams. The group’s holding company, 8I Holdings, was listed in 2014 on Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) under the stock code ASX:8IH.

In line with its vision of being the one of the reputable Value Investors of Asia, 8I Holdings continues to invest knowledge and resources into existing stakeholders and potential businesses to power their growth through value investing.

Investments 8I Holdings’s current investment portfolio includes: Public Market Investment Hidden Champions Fund Private Market Investment: 8IH China Pte Ltd 8MAD Group Sdn Bhd CT Hardware Sdn Bhd Velocity Property Group Limited

Financial Education 8VIC Global Pte Ltd Value Investing College Digimatic Group Limited

Performance of company:

Public Markets Following its listing, 8I continued to grow its business in its Public Markets segment. In September 2015, 8I announced the appointment of a Chief Investment Officer to undertake the management of its team of analysts and portfolio investment in public listed companies.

8I’s listed securities segment registered segmental profits of S$1.9M in the financial year of 2017. They performed relatively well (Hidden Champions Fund 15.9% vs. MSCI APAC 14.0% & STI 11.8%). 8I has put in place investment procedures compliances that its investment team will have to follow to manage the Hidden Champions Fund.

Their investment business (via 8 Capital, later renamed Hidden Champions Capital Management Pte Ltd) has also received the license for Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in April 2017. The RFMC will allow the Company to commence its new asset management business. As a Registered Fund Management Company, Hidden Champions Capital Management is permitted to manage / advise up to 30 Qualified Investors, of which not more than 15 are funds, and manage up to S$250 million in assets under management.

Private Markets

The Private Markets Investment segment achieved a segmental profit after tax of S$6.0M in 2017.

Based on 8I’s capital structure, 8I akin itself to a close fund with limited amount of funds. As such, the company takes into account to deploy funds to whichever investment that brings about the maximum returns.

'''8IH’s current portfolio of investees include:  8 MAD Group Sdn Bhd (“8MAD”)'''

8MAD group is an integrated marketing solutions agency based in Malaysia. In September 2016, 8IH acquired a 51% equity stake in 8MAD. The company’s acronym M.A.D symbolises the company’s efforts to make a difference in people, planet and profit as explained by Co-founder, Patrick Wee. The adjective MAD also expresses enthusiasm and passion for the team, which encapsulates the energy of the 8MAD team.

Since its acquisition, 8MAD has been steadily increasing their clientele. 8MAD’s recent contracts include leading brands like F&N dairies and Carousell, a prominent mobile classifieds marketplace, which appointed 8MAD as their branding and integrated marketing agency in Malaysia for 2017.

8I Holdings China Pte Ltd

Shanghai Rongdao Culture Communication Co., Ltd., is a subsidiary of 8I Holdings and 8IH China (Shanghai) Co. Ltd [信益安（上海）实业有限公司]. Rongdao was formerly founded by by a Chinese investment research expert and veteran Sinology researcher, Zhou Guiyin. With similar goals and values in mind, 8I Holdings and Mr Zhou Guiyin decided to enter into a partnership in 2016 to create a customised training system that incorporates Sinology and value investing.

The customised system also combines the wisdom of Chinese studies, the strategy of business operation and the concept of value investment. 8I Holdings hopes that through these customised value investing programmes, specially catered for China market, they can inspire 100 million Chinese people to return to rational investment.

CT Hardware Sdn Bhd (“CTH”)

CT Hardware is a Malaysian based hardware and machinery distribution company. It was established in 1977, spurred by its founding father, Seen Yew Weng, who saw a niche in the market to supply building materials to contractors fuelled by the country's growth in the late 70s.

The company transitioned from selling building materials to hardware and machinery following the global financial crisis hit in 1987. Today, CT Hardware caters to the needs of retail and commercial sectors with various retail outlets in the Klang Valley and an online presence, CTHardware.com, to cater to the rest of Malaysia.

With a well supported capital injection from 8IH in May 2016, following an equity acquisition of 49.9%, CTH has been undertaking several strategic growth initiatives driving innovation within the company’s operations. This includes the development of a back-end enterprise IT system to support their online portal. Earlier this year, CTH has also moved into their new fulfilment center and headquarters.

Velocity Property Group Ltd. (Velocity)

Velocity is an Australian based property developer operating within Queensland, Australia. On 7 February 2017, Velocity Property Group Ltd, was successfully listed on the ASX (Stock Code: VP7). Velocity currently has a development pipeline of five active projects that will continue to provide a healthy stream of portfolios to be delivered over the next two to three years.

As a significant shareholder of Velocity, 8IH aims to continue adding value to its investees through strategic growth within its ecosystem and joint venture arrangements with potential partners going forward. Velocity continues to be a boutique developer producing highly desirable residential properties.

Financial Education

8VIC Global Pte Limited (8VIC) Financial education had previously been a key focus of 8I Holdings, having started off with the vision to create a platform to share value investment knowledge. 8VIC Global is formed after the merger of 8I Education and Value Investing College.

The fully owned subsidiary, 8VIC Global, is among the leading financial education and training providers in Singapore and Malaysia. (footnote:Sourced from Euromonitor Report based on estimated course revenue receipts of value investing courses in calendar ear 2016, research conducted in June - August 2017 in Singapore and in Malaysia.) Its flagship courses, “Millionaire Investor Program” and “Value Investing Bootcamp”, focus on educating the layman on principles and techniques of value investing.

Currently, the Value Investing College (VIC) network supports more than 7,500 programme graduates, being one of the leading Value Investing education providers in Singapore and Malaysia. With new offices being set up in Taiwan and Thailand, VIC is geared up for its expansion towards its Vision of being the “Number 1 Global Value Investing Education Provider”. Currently, VIC is present overseas with its flagship programmes in Taiwan, Thailand, Myanmar, India, Vietnam and Dubai, with expansion plans to South Africa, Australia, Philippines and Japan.

In their financial year of 2017, 8IH’s Education segment has increased its revenue by 58.8% to S$10.7M (FY16: S$6.8M) in the financial year reported, with segmental profit after tax at S$3.6M (FY16: S$2.4M), up 52%.

This increase is largely due to the acquisition of Financial Joy Institute Pte Ltd (“FJI”) and the overall good performance of the Education team. 8IH has since then integrated the two entities to form 8VIC Global Pte Limited in July 2017. 8VIC has an enlarged talent pool through this integration and is currently running to ensure scalability.

In December 2017, 8IH announced a corporate action in which 8VIC was injected into Digimatic Group Limited for strategic purposes and therefore 8VIC will not proceed with an earlier proposed listing on SGX-ST Catalist.

Digimatic Group Ltd.

Digimatic Group Ltd (ASX: DMC) is a public company listed in Australia that provides financial education, digital performance marketing, affiliate marketing network and 360VR Marketing through its group of subsidiaries.

A wholly-owned subsidiarily, 8VIC Global Pte Limited is the leading Financial Education Provider (in the discipline of value investing) in Singapore and Malaysia.

Digimatic Media Pte Ltd focuses on performance based digital marketing, generating positive ROI for the clients.

Were Media Group Pte Ltd operates a affiliate marketing network with over 10+ years of industry experience, specialising in running performance campaigns for global clients.

Digimatic Creatives Pte Ltd is the leading powerhouses in Performance Video marketing and 360VR Marketing, providing rich, immersive content optimised for digital amplification.

As a group, DMC will strive to be an innovator that will ride on digital transformation trends towards being a leading global financial education company.

See Also:

Value Investing College Hidden Champions Fund

References 8I Holdings Annual Report 2017 8I Holdings 2017 Annual Review - Business Segment 8I Holdings website 8I Holdings Investor center 8I Holdings Announcement page 8I Holdings Media page