Apollo Food charts new all-time-high since listing in 1996

KUALA LUMPUR (March 19): Shares of Apollo Food Holdings Bhd on Tuesday soared to a new all-time high as strong earnings drew investors’ attention to the usually lightly-traded snack maker.

Apollo rose as much as 22.7% to RM7.08, adding some RM104.8 million to its market capitalisation. The stock closed at RM7 after 697,100 shares changed hands, valuing the company at RM560 million on Bursa Malaysia.

Bloomberg data showed the counter has rather low liquidity, with floating shares accounting for just 9.01 million or 11.3% out of 80 million outstanding shares, and the other 88.7% deemed stagnant.

According to a bourse filing from the company on Feb 21, its public shareholding spread was 21.21% as of end-January. Apollo has been granted an extension of six months until July 23 to comply with the public spread requirement.

No institutional analysts cover the stock.

So far this year, Apollo has climbed 21.53%, outperforming its peers. Bursa Malaysia Consumer Index, which tracks 168 stocks, clocked in less than 4% year-to-date gain. The counter has also gained 77.22% over the past 12 months.

The surge in Apollo’s share price comes after the company reported that its net profit nearly tripled to RM30.24 million for its third financial quarter ended Jan 31, 2024 (3QFY2024) from a year earlier as improved margins and higher domestic sales were further boosted by disposal gains.

Apollo booked a gain on the disposal of investment properties of RM18.6 million.

Nevertheless, the company said year-to-date earnings have already exceeded past year’s corresponding nine months’ results even without the one-off gains, thanks to product pricing strategies and the strength of its brands.

The group also declared a dividend of 50 sen per share, bringing its year-to-date dividends to 70 sen per share, up from 25 sen per share for the entirety of FY2023.

For its first nine months, Apollo recorded a net profit of RM47.83 million, up 92.5% from RM24.84 million recorded in the same period last year.

The majority shareholder of Apollo is Scoop Capital Sdn Bhd, the local franchisee of Baskin-Robbins. Scoop Capital is owned by Datuk Cheah See Yeong and his spouse Datin Soon Gock Lan @ Soon Geok Lin.

Scoop Capital became the majority shareholder after acquiring a 51.3% stake from Apollo's executive chairman Liang Chiang Heng and managing director Liang Kim Poh for RM238.08 million in cash in December last year, triggering a mandatory general offer for the remainder shares it did not own. Its stake rose to over 78.8% on conclusion of the MGO in January.