$WEYL NEWS! Weyland Tech Continues to Execute on Its Growth Plans and CEO Makes Further Commitment With Additional Stock Purchases
9:30 AM ET 12/6/18 | GlobeNewswire
Weyland Tech Continues to Execute on Its Growth Plans and CEO Makes Further Commitment With Additional Stock Purchases
New York, Dec. 06, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Weyland Tech Inc. (WEYL) ("Weyland" or the "Company"), a provider of mobile business applications, continues to execute on its growth plans and CEO makes further commitment with additional stock purchases.
The recent announcements surrounding the spin-off transaction of 49% of Weyland AtoZpay Incorporated ("WAI"), has shifted investor focus away from Weyland's core PaaS and e-Wallet businesses both of which have continued to grow nicely.
Moreover, focus on the technical aspects of the spin-off has drastically increased the amount and changed the nature of investor relations calls. As a result, on October 16th the company announced it had engaged American Capital Ventures ("ACV") to provide investor relations services.
Refocusing management attention has allowed the company to more fully engage in negotiating new and complementary logistics, retail and financial channel relationships for our core business, the PaaS platform which we expect to announce shortly.
Favorable Public and Private Investment Environment
Brent Suen, CEO, comments: "We are operating in a tremendously favorable market for PaaS and mCommerce companies in SE Asia. There are publicly traded companies with multibillion-dollar market valuations that have raised funds significantly exceeding funding efforts of our own. Despite that, we continue to grow our eWallet business cost-effectively in Indonesia and the PaaS business more generally.
While we are growing well, the competitive landscape is filled with companies raising and spending considerably more than Weyland Tech, hence the company too has sought to raise sufficient capital to gain market share -- which we believe we are doing -- and also to keep platform functionality competitive.
The investment environment for mobile app companies, mobile commerce (mCommerce) companies, digital money (eWallets) and digital entertainment companies has been robust. At least 14 companies in our same general industry space have achieved 'unicorn' valuations in the $1 billion to $5 billion range. These valuations are supported by investment from large corporations such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Alibaba, Tencent and other 'tier-one' strategic investors. Such activity is complemented by private equity and venture capital investment by firms such as Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins, KKR, Warburg and Softbank. Average funding rounds exceed $200 million and public listings supporting financial technology companies are on the rise in local markets. Although we have not yet been able to participate in any similar investment activity, we believe that our advances in the space could attract such interest."
Liquidity Events
Mr. Suen further noted, "As stated previously we believe the positioning of our PaaS platform and eWallet business will increasingly put us on the radar of either a large institutional funder or strategic investors interested in acquiring some or all of the business. To date, Weyland has made great strides with relatively little capital and a lack of visibility amongst institutional and strategic investors. Improving visibility to these sources of funding and liquidity is something we work on each and every day."
Conviction Buying
"We maintain a strong conviction that we are on the right strategic path and, in light of the recent pullback in our share price, I've purchased 50,000 shares of stock at an average of $1.15 according to the Form 4 filed on December 4, 2018. This is in addition to the 509,000 shares purchased through our incentive stock plan in September.
I and the entire senior management team, board of directors and certain professional consultants, have a Company imposed two-year lock up on shares that is renewed on the subsequent two-year anniversary of each share grant. This includes shares purchased in the open market and private transactions. We believe that this aligns management's interest with shareholders and is consistent with our stated goals to uplist the company and eventually seek a sale of the Company as both the e-wallet and PaaS businesses mature over the next 18- to 24-months," Suen continues.
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