What happened?

Shares of iFAST Corporation Limited (SGX: AIY) are up around 20% since the start of October. As at the time of writing, the shares are trading around S$2.90, up almost 21% from its S$2.39 close on 1 October. As a brief background, iFAST runs a financial technology platform that allows customers to buy and sell securities such as unit trusts, shares and bonds. The group reported a record level of S$11.15 billion in assets under administration (AUA) in its recent second-quarter 2020 earnings report. So what? Two months ago, the news emerged that Hong Kong has shortlisted finalists to digitise its retirement funds system. Two parties were shortlisted, a consortium led by Oneconnect Financial Technology, backed by Ping An Insurance Group (SEHK: 2318), and another group led by billionaire Richard Li’s PCCW Ltd (SEHK: 0008). PCCW was rumoured to be working with iFAST. The winner stood to reap around HK$37 billion in revenue over 10 years, while the technology partner would supposedly enjoy a cut of this revenue....