Cityneon Holdings has announced an undisclosed amount of investment from the Singapore Economic Development Board’s investment arm, EDBI, on 26 August 2019.
The homegrown company creates ‘experiential environments’ for brands, as well as licensed exhibitions, events and theme park attractions.
Besides bringing us Universal Studios Singapore, they’re best known for creating the highly successful Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N exhibitions around the world, after acquiring Victory Hill Exhibitions (VHE) in 2015.
With EDBI’s investment, Cityneon will tap on the board’s extensive network to further boost their expansion.
Today, approximately 90 per cent of the group’s profits are derived from outside of Singapore. We intend to step up our pace of expansion.
Ron Tan, Cityneon, Group Chief Executive and Executive Chairman
The company also plans to leverage on mixed reality and consumer analytics with the help of EBD’s expertise in emerging technologies, to complement what they’ve developed in experience entertainment offerings.
In addition to their existing headquarters here, Cityneon will set up their latest creative office in Singapore, like the ones they currently have in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
With this, they will bring their group Chief Creative Officer Welby Altidor over to lead the creative team to develop more multi-sensory experiences, starting 2020.
Earmarked For Growth Potential
EDBI President and CEO Chu Swee Yeok said their investment in Cityneon is aligned with the board’s strategic programme to support high-growth Singapore-based companies towards expansion.
They recognise Cityneon for having “successfully transformed itself into an IP-focused global leader in immersive experiential entertainment from their traditional businesses”.
The firm has come a long way since it started as a supplier of electrical appliances in 1956, and later expanded into designing and installing shop displays, retail booths and expo pavilions since around the 70s.
Cityneon was a Singapore Exchange (SGX) listed company for 13 years, until Tan recently moved to delist in early 2019, in order for the firm to regain more autonomy through privatisation.
Their last investment came from Citic Capital, the investment arm of Chinese state-owned financial conglomerate Citic Group, in May 2019.
Citic took a significant 10% stake in Cityneon, in a deal that would help the firm speed up their growth in North Asia.
Cityneon currently partners a number of major studios like Disney, Marvel, Hasbro, Universal, and Lionsgate.
They have toured their licensed exhibitions, with major pop culture names like the Avengers, Transformers and Jurassic World, in around 40 cities till date.
The next stops on their world map include Glasgow and Mumbai, where the Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N exhibition will land later this year, while the Transformers and Jurassic World exhibitions will be in Dubai and China respectively in 2020.
Cityneon expects to enter more partnerships and secure more IPs for their growing portfolio.
Featured Image Credit: Cityneon / Wales Online
