From left: Evergreen Max Cash Capital Bhd (EMCC) subsidiary director Datin Lavinia Tan Poh Choo, EMCC subsidiary director Tea Kain Chuan, EMCC executive director Low Kai Loon, Mercury Securities Group Bhd MD Chew Sing Guan, EMCC chairman Datuk Mohd Azfar Mohamed, EMCC MD Datuk Low Kok Chuan, EMCC executive director Datin Tea Guat Ngo, EMCC executive director Datin Fadzlullaily Yakob, EMCC CEO Sing Suk Fuen and EMCC chief financial officer Hee Chee Keong (Photo by Patrick Goh/The Edge)

KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 26): Evergreen Max Cash Capital Bhd's (EMCC) share price opened at 32 sen on Tuesday (Sept 26) on its debut on the ACE Market of Bursa Malaysia, an eight sen or 33.33% premium over its initial price offering (IPO) price of 24 sen.

The pawnbroking service provider's opening volume was 37.7 million shares.

EMCC executive director and group managing director Datuk Low Kok Chuan said being a listed company marked the beginning of a new chapter and elevated the group's brand visibility among potential and new customers.

“Moving forward, we are confident that the pawnbroking industry will continue to grow as pawnbroking services remain a preferred choice for short-term financing, especially amongst the unbanked and underbanked population.

“With the IPO proceeds in place, we are well-positioned to execute our expansion plan. This includes increasing the cash capital of our existing 'Pajaking' pawnshops by RM30 million as well as to increase the number of 'Pajaking' pawnshops that we have," Low added

The group raised a total of RM64.2 million from the IPO.

EMCC has allocated RM20 million (31.1%) for the expansion of pawnshops and RM30 million (46.7%) for cash capital for its pawnbroking business. Meanwhile, RM4 million (6.2%) has been earmarked for the repayment of bank borrowings, RM5.6 million (8.8%) is for working capital, and the remaining RM4.6 million has been slated for listing expenses.

Based on EMCC’s latest released financial results for the first half ended June 30, 2023 (1HFY2023), the group recorded a net profit of RM7.21 million on a revenue of RM52.03 million. This represents an increase of 23% compared to a net profit of RM5.87 million in the previous year’s corresponding period (1HFY2022), and a 72% year-on-year rise in revenue from RM30.26 million.

The increased financial performance was mainly due to higher pawn loans disbursed and higher sales volume of unredeemed pledged gold items from the pawnbroking business as well as pre-owned gold products sourced from other third party pawnshops.

Mercury Securities Sdn Bhd is the principal adviser, sponsor, underwriter and placement agent for this IPO exercise.

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