Foreign wine maker China Ouhua Winery Holdings Ltd opened at 66 sen for a six sen premium over its offer price of 60 sen on its debut on Bursa Malaysia today.

At midday, its share price was last traded at 68 sen, with 435.8 million shares changing hands.

'Response for our shares have been very encouraging and I hope investors will be with us on a long-term basis,' said executive chairman and chief executive officer Wang Chao to reporters after the listing.

At the opening bell, some 2.8 million shares were transacted.

The company had raised RM79.5 million from its initial public offering (IPO) with 132.55 million new shares being issued.

In the morning session, share prices moved between 64.5 sen and 69 sen.

'We have presence in 11 provinces in China and we intend to expand our business and distributorship to the Shaanxi province in the near future.

'Proceeds raised from the IPO will be utilised for research and development for new innovative products and also to open new vineyards,' he said after witnessing the company's listing.

Currently, Ouhua has no plan to expand to the South-East Asian region, he said, citing that the huge market in China has not been fully tapped yet.

He also said the company would be releasing its third quarter results soon.

'I am satisfied with the results, normally the first and fourth quarter will perform better than the rest of the year due to the festive season,' he said.

For the first half ended June 30, the company recorded RM46.09 million pre-tax profit, a 16.6 per cent increase from RM38.4 million in the same period last year.

Revenue rose 19.2 per cent to RM112.25 million from RM90.69 million last year. -- Bernama