KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 25): Wood-based products manufacturer Evergreen Fibreboard Bhd's maiden private placement exercise was oversubscribed with strong demand from institutional and high net-worth investors.

In a statement today, the group said the 51.29 million new placement shares, which represented approximately 10% of its existing issued and paid-up capital, were priced at RM2.05 per placement share.

"All placees have been identified, the issue price of RM2.05 represents a discount of 4.8% to the five-day volume weighted average price of Evergreen shares up to and including Nov 20, 2015. Based on the issue price, the group is expected to raise gross proceeds of RM105.14 million," read its statement.

Evergreen group chief operating officer and executive director Kuo Jen Chiu said that the group is extremely pleased with the market demand for its shares, notwithstanding that this is the group's first placement exercise.

"This is our first placement exercise as a 10-year-old public listed company, and we are overwhelmed with the response and will certainly press ahead with our business expansion and re-organisation plans for the company. 2016 is expected to be another exciting year for us," said Kuo.

CIMB Investment Bank Bhd is the sole placement agent for the proposed private placement and principal adviser for the proposals, while ZJ Advisory Sdn Bhd is the financial adviser for the proposals.

Evergreen shares rose two sen or 0.95% today to close at RM2.13, with a market capitalisation of RM512.98 million.

(Note: The Edge Research’s fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)