This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on October 3, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: AME Elite Consortium Bhd, en route to list on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia on Oct 14, saw the public tranche of its initial public offering (IPO) oversubscribed by 4.39 times.

In a statement yesterday, the integrated industrial property solutions provider said it received a total of 2,449 applications for 46 million shares with a total value of RM59.81 million versus the 8.54 million shares that were made available for application by the Malaysian public.

“Our sizeable order book and unbilled sales provide earnings visibility till the second quarter of 2021. Coupled with ongoing efforts to meet incoming demand for industrial properties, we are optimistic of leveraging on the uptrend,” AME group managing director Kelvin Lee Chai said.

He added that the group intends to adopt a dividend policy to distribute at least 20% of its annual net profit to shareholders, subject to business performance and recommendation of the board of directors.

Apart from developing its own industrial parks under the “i-Park” brand in Johor, AME Elite also designs and constructs large customised manufacturing plants and industrial buildings.

The group has completed around 200 large manufacturing plants and industrial buildings in Peninsular Malaysia for various industries including steel, oleo chemicals, oil and gas, electrical and electronics, consumer products, food and beverage, logistics and automotive, and more.

AME Elite’s IPO entails a public issue of 85.4 million new shares with an offer-for-sale of 42.7 million existing shares, at an issue price of RM1.30 per share.

Under the listing exercise, AME Elite will raise RM166.6 million, of which RM111.1 million will be used for business expansion and the remaining RM55.5 million to the selling shareholders via an offer-for-sale.

From the RM111.1 million allocation for business expansion, RM69.1 million will be allocated for future industrial property development and investment projects, RM23 million for working capital for the i-Park @ Senai Airport City development, RM9 million to complete the expansion of the group’s precast concrete fabrication capacity, and the remaining RM10 million for the defraying of listing expenses.