KUALA LUMPUR (July 24): Jentayu Sustainables Bhd (JSB) rose as much as 28% to a record high of RM1.27 on Monday (July 24), after signing a two-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) on renewable energy (RE) projects.

The counter had pared its gains to RM1.02 at the closing bell — up three sen or 3% — giving the group a market capitalisation of RM402.16 million.

Trading volume swelled to 45.19 million, making JSB the 10th most actively traded stock on Bursa Malaysia, and was more than double last Friday's volume of 12.54 million and its 200-day average volume of 8.53 million.

Last Thursday, JSB — formerly known as Ipmuda Bhd — inked a two-year MOU with Tokyo-based Sumitomo Corp for potential collaborations such as a joint venture and capital allocation into Jentayu's present and potential renewable power plant projects, cooperative management of related projects, and shared investment and development of upcoming RE initiatives.

JSB is developing a 170MW run-of-river hydropower plant project in Sipitang, Sabah (Oriole Hydro), and is targeting to expand its portfolio of RE assets.

The group is seeking new partners to embark on hydropower plant developments after the exclusivity period of its agreement with Germany-based Voith Hydro Holding GmbH & Co KG lapsed in May, as both parties were unable to finalise a definitive agreement within the execution period.

On July 17, the group fixed the issue price for the fourth tranche of its private placement at 82 sen per placement share.

This represents a discount of approximately 8.57 sen or 9.46% to the five-day volume weighted average market price of JSB shares up to and including July 14, being the market day immediately preceding to the price-fixing date of 90.57 sen.

The loss-making group previously aims to raise as much as RM47.07 million from its private placement — which entails the issuance of up to 142.63 million new shares, representing not more than 30% of the total number of issued shares — to partially finance pre-development expenditures for the hydroelectric projects in Sabah.

For the third quarter ended March 31, 2023, JSB widened its net loss to RM6.82 million from RM3.85 million a year ago, as revenue dropped to RM5.84 million from RM25.06 million.

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