KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 8): EPB Group Bhd (KL:EPB), which is en route to list on the ACE Market on Aug 23, said the public portion of its initial public offering (IPO) shares was oversubscribed by 61.08 times.

The food processing and packaging machinery provider’s listing exercise offered a total of 111.57 million shares, the bulk of which was for private placement.

EPB’s IPO entailed a public issuance of 71.57 million new shares, representing 19.24% of the enlarged share capital, at an issue price of 56 sen per share, to raise RM40.07 million.

On top of that, there was an offer for sale of 40 million existing shares, or 10.75% of the enlarged share capital, by way of private placement to selected investors.

In a bourse filing, EPB said it received 25,756 applications for 1.21 billion shares from the Malaysian public, compared with the 19.57 million new shares made available for public subscription.

For the Bumiputera portion in which 30.80 million shares were offered, 11,850 applications were received for 456.4 million shares, representing an oversubscription rate of 45.63 times.

As for the other public category, 13,906 applications were received for 758.65 million shares, representing an oversubscription rate of 76.53 times.

The 21.19 million shares available for application by eligible employees and persons who have contributed to EPB’s success have been fully subscribed.

Meanwhile, the private placement of 15.69 million shares to Bumiputera investors and 24.30 million shares made available to selected investors has also been completely placed out.

EPB said the notices of allotment will be posted to all successful applicants by Aug 19.

Upon listing, EPB is expected to have a market capitalisation of RM208.32 million based on the issue price of 56 sen per share and the enlarged share capital of 372 million shares.

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