This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on January 23, 2020

KUALA LUMPUR: Electricity distribution product manufacturer Powerwell Holdings Bhd made an impressive debut on the ACE Market yesterday amid muted market sentiments, its share price surging as much as a fifth to 30 sen intra-day after opening half a sen or 2% up.

The counter ended the day at 28.5 sen for a 14% premium over its 25 sen offer price. Some 304 million shares were traded, making it the most actively traded stock.

Powerwell executive director Ricky Lee said now the company was listed, its management would work harder to “bring the company to the next level of growth”.

At a press conference after the listing ceremony yesterday, he said Powerwell foresees a pickup in construction activities and was “quite positive for this year,” given the revival or review of a number of megaprojects, including Bandar Malaysia, East Coast Rail Link and Mass Rapid Transit Line 3 (MRT3).

Lee said that Powerwell is now tendering for the Light Rail Transit Line 3 (LRT3) and MRT2 underground station contracts.

Powerwell, through its subsidiary, is involved in the design, manufacturing and trading of electricity distribution products which comprise low voltage switchboards, medium voltage switchgears and related products.

Lee said the company has an outstanding order book of RM59 million and is currently supplying its products to the MRT2 elevated stations in different stages.

It had previously participated in the MRT1 and Kelana Jaya LRT line projects.

Apart from infrastructure projects, he said the group is also bidding for other jobs in industrial and commercial buildings, as well as overseas.

For its cumulative nine months ended Sept 30, 2019, 82% of its revenue was derived from Malaysia and the balance from overseas where it supplies to a number of markets, including Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, and the Philippines.

The group is expanding its range of certification for its products to cover a wider market and raising its competitiveness by allocating RM3.87 million from its initial public offering proceeds for certification expenditure.

It raised RM21.85 million, the bulk or RM10.27 million earmarked for capital expenditure.

Powerwell had allocated 23.8 million shares for the Malaysian public, but received a total of 7,219 applications for 601.38 million shares, with a value of RM150.34 million, for an oversubscription of nearly 25 times.