MKHOP chairman Tan Sri Datuk Alex Chen (fifth from right) and MKHOP executive director Datuk Andy Lee (fourth from right) during the group's debut on Bursa's Main Market.

KUALA LUMPUR (April 30): MKH Oil Palm (East Kalimantan) Bhd (MKHOP) opened at 63 sen in its Main Market debut on Tuesday, up 1.6% from its initial public offering (IPO) price of 62 sen.

The counter saw some 12.13 million shares traded.

Prior to listing, the group noted that its IPO had been oversubscribed by the Malaysian public by 8.43 times.

MKHOP, a wholly-owned unit of property developer MKH Bhd, is an upstream oil palm plantation group with operations based in East Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Through its subsidiaries, MKHOP is principally involved in the cultivation of oil palm and production, and sale of crude palm oil and palm kernel. It owns two oil palm plantation assets with a total land area of 18,205.3 hectares, one palm oil mill and one jetty. The plantation estates are located in East Kalimantan’s Samarinda, Balikpapan and Indonesia’s new capital Nusantara.

MKH Bhd initiated the listing of plantation assets under MKHOP on Bursa Malaysia's Main Market to seize growth opportunities near the new Indonesian capital of Nusantara. The floatation exercise is the first plantation IPO in seven years since Matang Bhd’s debut in January 2017.

Notable previous plantation IPOs include Boustead Plantations Bhd in June 2014 (now privatised by Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera) and Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (now FGV Holdings Bhd) in June 2012.

MKHOP has raised up to RM136.4 million from its Main Market IPO, of which 30.8% will go towards expanding its plantation assets via new land acquisitions near its existing plantation assets in East Kalimantan.

The group recorded RM26.5 million in net profit on the back of RM168.4 million revenue for the first half of the financial year ended March 31, 2024.

M&A Securities Sdn Bhd is the adviser, managing underwriter, joint underwriter and joint placement agent for the IPO exercise. Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd is the joint underwriter and joint placement agent, while AmInvestment Bank Bhd is the joint placement agent for the IPO.

Source: TheEdge - 30 Apr 2024