KUALA LUMPUR (March 16): Red Sena Bhd, Malaysia's first food and beverage (F&B) special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), said Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia are the top three destinations it is looking at for its qualifying acquisition (QA).

"In terms of strong potential, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, then maybe Vietnam, Phillipines, in that particular order," said the SPAC's chief executive officer Joseph Tan Eng Guan, when asked if the company had chosen any particular country to focus on for its QA.

"If you look at the population size and F&B business development, you will naturally come to this kind of order as well," he told reporters after the SPAC's first annual general meeting today.

He said the company is now at the stage of identifying and screening potential QA, and that it is currently engaging with regional mergers and acquisitions specialists.

A shell company now, Red Sena's initial public offering raised RM400 million, of which 92% (RM368 million) will be placed in a cash trust account to acquire operating companies or assets in branded packaged F&B business.

At 2.15pm, shares of Red Sena slipped 0.5 sen or 1.25% to 39.5 sen, after some 3.86 million shares were traded, giving it a market capitalisation of RM395 million.