Founded by former radio DJ and TV show host Dasmond Koh, NoonTalk is a media firm that manages artistes and produces content and events for Chinese-language audiences. Koh owns about 62% of NoonTalk.
Despite Koh’s celebrity status and media background, NoonTalk remains a reminder that star power is a poor substitute for a working business model. The company, which was listed in 2022, has been in the red for the last three financial years ending June 30. Audited annual revenues since FY2020 have been modest, ranging from $3 million to $6.4 million.
It also has more liabilities than assets. Net cash flows from operations, meanwhile, remain negative. Its independent auditors have raised concerns for two consecutive years about its ability to keep going.
Koh had to step in to provide a $2 million interest-free loan to NoonTalk in October 2024. Slightly more than a year later, it secured a one-year loan of $750,000 from a private investor at an annual interest rate of 8%, to be repaid through conversion into shares.
See also: AstraZeneca signs obesity deal in China worth up to US$18.5 bil
Will the collaboration with Merak turn things around for NoonTalk?
According to NoonTalk’s Dec 31 statement, the strategic partnership will seek to improve its operational efficiency, including streamlining certain processes, as well as train employees and “foster a culture of continuous innovation”.
How all that is to be achieved was missing from the announcement. For now, what both companies will commit to is to form an entity named Verve Media Live (VML). VML will be involved in media production, content development, live streaming incubation, and e-commerce. NoonTalk will take a 19% stake in it while Merak will own the rest.
See also: Sony, Singapore’s GIC to invest US$2 bil in music catalogues
“At this stage, the collaboration is still in its preliminary phase, and the framework and scope are still being developed. As such, there is no substantive information for us to share publicly at this moment,” a NoonTalk spokesperson tells The Edge Singapore. “It would be premature to comment on the collaboration or its implications, and we would prefer to avoid any unintended speculation.”
NoonTalk was introduced to Merak by a business associate, according to the spokesperson.
Old roots, new name
NoonTalk has also offered little information about Merak, beyond saying its partner has an industrial property in Singapore located at 25 Bukit Batok Street 22. That’s the same registered business address of TEE International. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because the company was previously listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX).
TEE delisted in February 2024 after it failed to provide a viable turnaround plan following a trading suspension in 2021 triggered by mounting corporate governance and financial problems. TEE, which was in several businesses including waste management and construction, was renamed Merak in 2024 after it left SGX.
According to Merak’s business profile on Singapore corporate registry Acra, its CEO is Phua Cher Chuan. He is also a minority shareholder, with a 2.2% stake, as well as managing director.
Phua was CEO of TEE from September 2021 until its delisting. Before TEE, he spent years in the semiconductor industry, first as an engineer at National Semiconductor Manufacturing and later holding senior engineering and management roles at Infineon Technologies, ST Assembly and Test Services, and Flextronics International.
Sink your teeth into in-depth insights from our contributors, and dive into financial and economic trends
He is also the nephew of Phua Chian Kin, the original CEO of TEE and its long-time controlling shareholder. The elder Phua sold his controlling stake in TEE in 2020 to an investment holding company funded by Altair Capital General Partners, a private equity firm focused on buyouts and significant minority investments in Southeast Asia.
Altair Capital owns about 58% of Merak, according to filings with Acra. These shares are held through UOB Kay Hian. Altair Capital has offices in Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam, and is also the Southeast Asian affiliate of Polaris Capital, a buyout group in Japan with more than US$4 billion ($5.1 billion) in assets under management.
What private equity might bring
Altair Capital’s involvement with NoonTalk appears consistent with the kind of situations it typically targets: small- to mid-market companies undergoing transition. According to its website profile, the private equity firm generally invests in businesses with enterprise values of about US$5 million to US$100 million, deploying US$5 million to US$30 million per deal.
Altair Capital tends to favour transactions that involve structural change: from privatisations and corporate carve-outs to management buyouts, family-succession situations and buy-and-build strategies.
Its sector focus — manufacturing, services, consumer, healthcare and education — seems to matter less than its underlying thesis: acquire influence at an inflection point, stabilise operations, and reposition the business for the next owner. Through Polaris Capital, it has access to a regional network that may prove useful in sourcing partners or exits. Altair Capital is explicit about operating on a three- to five-year clock, after which it expects to exit.
For now, the structure of the partnership is clearer than its economics. Merak contributes the Bukit Batok premises while NoonTalk shoulders the running and operating costs of VML, from utilities and manpower to day-to-day management. What looks asset-light on paper effectively places the cash-flow and execution risk on a company that’s already loss-making, thinly capitalised and reliant on external funding.
This bears closer watching because NoonTalk has little room for cost slippage. Its existing cost base is already dominated by manpower and execution rather than rent. Under the VML arrangement, it will fund most of the operating expenses while holding just 19% of the venture. If VML scales and generates cash quickly, the trade-off may prove defensible. If it doesn’t, NoonTalk risks carrying the costs of ambition upfront while the returns, if they come at all, arrive later and diluted.
