Recently, the following four Singapore companies have announced acquisition plans to drive revenue and profit growth.

Q & M Dental Group (SGX: QC7)

Q&M Dental Group is the largest private dental clinic network in Singapore, with 107 clinics and about 40,000 patients per month. The group employs 270 dentists and more than 350 support staff in Singapore, and has dental clinics in Malaysia. It is also a major shareholder of Aoxin Q&M Dental Group (SGX: 1D4).

Recently, the management signed a memorandum of understanding with Veritas, which is 90% owned by Dr. Sebrina Binti Abdul Malik, to acquire its dental clinic at 781 Bukit Timah Road. The acquisition is in line with Q&M Dental's plan to expand its dental clinic business in Singapore. Dr. Sebrina will also sign a service agreement with the group for at least 10 years.

Q&M Dental will pay S$800,000 for the acquisition and the MOU stipulates that Veritas and Dr. Sebrina will provide a profit guarantee of S$1.02 million between September 1, 2024 and August 31, 2032. Veritas' net book value as of December 31, 2023 is S$203,486.

iFAST Corporation Limited (SGX: AIY)

iFAST Corporation Limited is a financial technology company that operates a platform for buying and selling unit trusts, stocks and bonds. As of June 30, 2024, the group's assets under management (AUA) reached an all-time high of S$22.4 billion. Last week, iFAST announced that it had acquired 300,000 shares of iFAST Global Bank (iGB) for GBP4 million, acquiring a 6.93% stake in the bank.

Following the acquisition, iGB will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of iFAST. In its Q2 2024 results, iFAST expects iGB to be a significant growth driver in 2025 and beyond. iGB customer deposits surged 80.3% year-on-year to S$646.6 million in Q2 2024, driving net interest income for the quarter up 265% year-on-year to S$1.85 million.

In early September, iGB launched EzRemit, a cross-currency transfer service for digital personal banking (DPB) customers, allowing customers to transfer money to more than 50 countries at low fees, supporting 25 currencies, and to international banks and more than 50 e-wallets.

Digital Core REIT (SGX: DCRU)

Digital Core REIT is a data center real estate investment trust with a portfolio of 10 data centers valued at S$1.4 billion as of June 30, 2024. Recently, the REIT announced plans to acquire a stake of 0.2% to 40% in a data center located in Frankfurt, with an expected acquisition of approximately 10% based on current market conditions.

The Frankfurt data center is 98.5% leased with a remaining weighted average lease term of 5.8 years. DCR has an option to acquire up to 89.9% of the facility, with total acquisition costs expected to be between $1.1 million and $213 million.

Management believes the acquisition will help DCR achieve scale and diversification while improving the credit rating of the portfolio. Assuming a 10% stake, the purchase is expected to be 1.7% accretive to distribution earnings per unit. The Frankfurt data center also offers organic growth opportunities with built-in rent escalation clauses, while limited new supply presents management with positive rent reversion opportunities.

Sembcorp Industries (SGX: U96)

Sembcorp Industries is an energy and urban solutions provider with a 21.2 GW balanced energy portfolio and over 14,000 hectares of urban development projects across Asia Pacific.

Last week, Sembcorp signed a purchase agreement with ENGIE Global Developments B.V. to acquire its 30% stake in Senoko Energy Pte Ltd. Senoko Energy is Singapore's main electricity supplier and the acquisition will complement Sembcorp's current portfolio of energy assets. The acquisition will help the utility giant support Singapore's energy transition while ensuring Singapore's energy security and resilience.

The Energy Market Authority has reviewed the transaction and said it has no objection to the acquisition. The main terms of the acquisition will be announced later and is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year.