By Wei Lynn Tang

KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 24): Elsoft Research Bhd, in its announcement to Bursa Malaysia today said that its proposed transfer from the ACE Market to the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia has been approved by the Securities Commission.

To recap, Elsoft had on May 30 announced on its proposed transfer, and on Aug 28 submitted its application in relation to the proposed transfer to the SC.

Elsoft share priced has more than doubled since the beginning of the year, climbing from the low of 70 sen to all time high of RM1.74 in early October. The stock closed at RM1.54 today, up three sen or nearly 2%, giving it market capitalization of RM276.95 million.

Financially, the group had achieved a cumulative net profit of RM22.38 million for the past three financial years, with net profit for the latest financial year ended Dec 31, 2013 (FY13) coming in at RM10.8 million.

Group revenue had doubled from RM12.65 million in FY11 to RM25.22 million in FY13.

Elsoft attributed the growth for the period from FY11 to FY12 mainly to higher sales generated from both existing and new customers arising from the increasing demand for Light Emitting Diodes (LED) from the smart phone and tablet markets as well as automotive industry.

Meanwhile from FY12 to FY13, it attributed the growth partially to higher sales of new series of LED testers which command higher margin during the financial year.

It is worth to note that gross profit margin expanded from 37.24% in FY11 to 47.37% in FY13.

For the nine months ended Sept 30, 2014 (9M14), net profit rose 73.1% to RM15.53 million from RM8.98 million in the previous corresponding period. Revenue came in 67.3% higher at RM35.38 million, compared with RM21.16 million. Gross profit margin further expanded to 48.9%.

Elsoft, which is principally involved in research, design and development of test, burn-in and application specific embedded system, has been on the ACE Market of Bursa Securities for more than 9 years since Aug 2005.