KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 15): AME Elite Consortium Bhd rose 7.74% today after it soared in active trade upon its debut on Bursa Malaysia's Main Market yesterday, registering a volume of 8.4 million shares.

At 10.10am today, shares of the integrated industrial property solutions provider rose 15 sen to RM1.70.

Yesterday, AME started the day at RM1.28, down two sen or 1.54% to its initial public offering (IPO) price of RM1.30, but quickly recovered to rise to RM1.59, before closing at RM1.55 — a gain of 25 sen or 19.23% to the offer price.

At the listing ceremony yesterday, AME group managing director Kelvin Lee Chai said the firm expects double-digit growth for the current financial year ending March 31, 2020.

For the first quarter ended June 30, 2019, AME's net profit jumped 96% to RM13.1 million, from RM6.7 million a year earlier. Its revenue rose 60.8% to RM94.4 million from RM58.7 million previously.

AME said the strong results were due to higher demand for its industrial properties resulting from Malaysia's economic growth, investments in the manufacturing sector and the ongoing US-China trade tensions.

Speaking to reporters at the listing ceremony yesterday, Lee said he sees that a rising foreign direct investment into Malaysia has helped boost demand for industrial properties.

Further, he said the group is expected to benefit from plants relocating or companies' global expansion arising from the US-China trade spat.

Also, with the group's strong construction order book of over RM300 million, Lee is confident this will provide AME with earnings visibility for 18 months.

Lee said the group is looking to expand its industrial property business into other industrial areas such as those in Penang and Selangor.

On the precast concrete fabrication capacity expansion plan, Lee said the group had secured orders from Singapore, taking up the upcoming new supply as well as internal projects.

On Oct 14, Affin Hwang Capital Research initiated coverage of AME with a "buy" rating at its retail IPO price of RM1.30 and a target price (TP) of RM1.83. Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd also initiated a "buy" call on AME with a TP of RM1.48.