Fram Skandinavien AB (publ) publishes interim report Q1 2023

Fram Skandinavien focuses on profitability boost for ventures in portfolio and building a strong pipeline

As of 30th of April 2023, the net asset value amounted to 266 mSEK (74 SEK per share), which was approximately +134% above the closing price of the Fram B share on the same day and represented a decrease of -4% compared to 31st Dec 2022.
Since the shift towards the new strategy focusing on investments and the arrival of the in-house investment team, Fram has been engaging in a profitability boost for the ventures in its portfolio, improving capital efficiency and sharpening its investment readiness. Additional fundings were made by Fram into Carmudi and EveHR during Q1 2023 for respectively 2.9 mSEK and 1.3 mSEK to support their business operations and to prepare their development trajectory for 2023 and onwards. 
Moreover, Fram added 2 new public tech companies to its portfolio during Q1 2023: Abaxx Technologies, a Singaporean blockchain-based commodity exchange, with an invested amount of 0.3 mSEK, and Bukalapak, a leading Indonesian b2b e-commerce marketplace, with 1 mSEK. 
The current portfolio of Fram consists of 8 holdings, including 4 private and 4 public tech companies, with a total invested amount of 49 mSEK. The total NAV of these companies reached 232 mSEK, rendering a latent return multiple of 4.8x on the invested capital.
The Fram team has continuously screened and done extensive research / due diligence on tech startups in Vietnam and the Southeast Asia (“SEA”) region in order to form a strong pipeline for future investments.

Global market shows early signs of recovery in 2023, despite uncertainty

Global equity markets showed positive results in Q1 2023. The developed and emerging equity markets gained +7.5% and +3.6% respectively, despite the continuous market turbulence at hand - notably the collapse of some of the largest banks in the US and the EU (Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse). The recovery of the markets are expected to continue in 2023 following the early signals of i) the recent decline in energy and food prices ii) the easing of inflation in many countries, iii) smoother global supply chains from the re-opening of China and iv) the recovery of international travel and tourism post Covid.
The stocks of Southeast Asia’s tech giants are still in a corrective phase. However, it is likely to be a transitional phase towards long term growth, as more companies put stronger focus on their fundamentals, accelerating their timeline for profitability and could take benefit from the strong momentum of foreign direct investments in the region.
Across Southeast Asia, IPO activities remained encouraging, with 51 deals raising 1.4 bnUSD in Q1 2023 (vs 29 IPOs raising 1 bnUSD in Q1 2022). Indonesia was the most active country in the region, with 30 IPOs raising 828 mUSD, followed by Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Startups in the region closed 195 equity deals in the first quarter, marking a -37% drop on a YoY basis. 
Singapore remained the leader in deal volume in Southeast Asia, with 103 transactions in Q1 2023. While Indonesia experienced a decline in funding rounds, Thailand saw a significant increase, with startups raising +500 mUSD. Vietnam tech startups accounted for 5% of the total region’s deal volume in Q1 2023 where ecommerce and fintech accounted for the largest portions.