Friday 29 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on August 8, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: Enest Group Bhd, which made its debut on the LEAP Market of Bursa Malaysia yesterday, is looking to expand its export markets to include Dubai and New Zealand.

The group, principally involved in the processing of raw bird’s nest into edible bird’s nest, currently exports to Singapore, China, Taiwan and Australia, besides catering to the Malaysian market.

Bird’s nest products have generally been prized in the market due to its rarity and high nutritional value, reputed to maintain youthfulness and enhance complexion.

Geographically, China contributes the most to Enest’s revenue with a 91.11% contribution as at financial year 2018 (FY18). This is followed by Malaysia at 3.41%, Australia and Singapore at 3.13%, and Hong Kong at 2.35%.

Chief executive officer David Tan Teh Jie said the bird’s nest industry is considered a fresh one and noted that there is growing demand from regions such as the Middle East and China.

“For China, they only gave out 33 licences to Malaysian companies to export and two of them were given to us. Even with 33 licences, we feel this is not enough to fulfil the demand there so we are positive that if they issue more, it will give us more opportunities,” Teh Jie said at a press conference following the group’s initial public offering (IPO) debut yesterday.

The IPO involved an excluded issue of 50 million new shares to sophisticated investors at an issue price of eight sen per share, representing 10.75% of the group’s enlarged share capital of 465 million.

At the strike of the opening bell yesterday, shares in the group rose to nine sen with 60,000 shares traded, marking a 12.5% premium. The counter closed the day at 10 sen, with 260,000 shares traded and a market capitalisation of RM46.5 million.

“We are happy and surprised with the opening price. While we started off on the LEAP Market, we do intend to transfer to the ACE Market in the near future, though no timeline has been set yet,” said Teh Jie.

Performance-wise, Teh Jie said the group is looking to increase top-line growth by 30% this year with higher demand. Enest recorded a profit after tax of RM3.06 million on the back of RM14.65 million revenue in FY18.

The group raised RM4 million from the listing exercise, of which 39.82% will be used for working capital, 12.53% for capital expenditure, 12.5% for research and development (R&D) expenditure and 10.15% for brand development expenditure, while the remaining 25% is to defray listing expenses.

Under the R&D, the group intends to develop cosmetic products containing bird’s nest essence while capex will be used to expand and renovate its existing production facilities.

It will also strengthen the group’s Bai Leng Yen brand, which includes rental and renovation of its new office and product showroom in Kuala Lumpur.

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