KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 21): Swift Haulage Bhd opened 10 sen or 9.71% higher at RM1.13 on its debut on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia on Tuesday (Dec 21), against its initial public offering (IPO) price of RM1.03.

The integrated logistics service provider, however, ended the day down seven sen or 6.8% at 96 sen, giving the company a market value of RM854.21 million.

Its IPO, which raised RM161.9 million, making it one of the largest IPOs of 2021, involved a public issue of 157.14 million new shares and an offer for sale of 177 million existing shares including the overallotment option.

Swift Haulage would be using the proceeds to fund the building of a new warehouse in the Port Klang Free Zone and to purchase 30 new prime movers, its chief executive officer Loo Yong Hui told The Edge in a pre-IPO interview earlier this month.

The measures are part of the group's plan to further consolidate its position as the largest haulage service operator in the country.

As at Oct 31 this year, Swift Haulage's fleet operations in Malaysia and Thailand consisted of 1,546 prime movers, 5,518 container trailers and 811 box/curtain-sider trailers, 53 trucks and 42 compressed natural gas tankers. In addition, the group's warehousing facilities consisted of 849,371 sq ft owned and leased storage capacity and container depots with a total capacity of 28,500 twenty-foot equivalent units.

The group previously said its IPO had attracted nine cornerstone investors, namely AIA Bhd, AmFunds Management Bhd, AmIslamic Funds Management Sdn Bhd, Areca Capital Sdn Bhd as the fund manager of Areca Dynamic Growth Fund 10, Kenanga Investors Bhd, HSBC Global Asset Management (Hong Kong) Ltd, Nikko Asset Management Asia Ltd, UOB Asset Management (Malaysia) Bhd and Zurich Life Insurance Malaysia Bhd.

MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd was the principal adviser, joint lead bookrunner, joint bookrunner, managing underwriter and joint underwriter for the IPO.

Concurrently, MIDF Research, which initiated its coverage of Swift Haulage on Tuesday, valued the group with a "buy" call and a target price of RM1.28, with the valuation derived by pegging its earnings per share forecast of 6.98 sen for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2022 at 18.3 times target price-earnings ratio.

The research firm likes the group due to its well-diversified business model, sizeable fleet of commercial vehicles and superior profit margins.

In a separate statement, Loo said the group will continue its commitment to operational excellence.

"Our enhanced capital base and expansion plans will serve to strengthen our capabilities and competitiveness in the industry. This will enable us to better capture growth opportunities as the global economic recovery resumes, and to deliver a sustainable growth strategy to meet shareholders' expectations in value creation," he added.

In his welcome speech at Swift Haulage's listing ceremony, Bursa Malaysia chief executive officer Datuk Muhamad Umar Swift said the group had "the distinction to book-end the listings at Bursa Malaysia for 2021, being the final and the 30th IPO listed for the year".

The number of IPOs this year is also the same as the total registered in 2019, before the pandemic struck, and 11 more than the 19 seen last year.

Of the 30 IPOs this year, seven were Main Market listers, 11 were ACE Market listees, while 12 debuted on the LEAP Market.

In terms of 2021 IPO performances so far, Swift Haulage is one of the three stocks that settled below their IPO prices on their debut days. The other two were: Yenher Holdings Bhd (down 5.26%) and IGB Commercial Real Estate Investment Trust (down 30%).

As for the best listing day performances, the top five are: Carzo Holdings Bhd (up 228.07%), Pekat Group Bhd (up 154.69%), Steel Hawk Bhd (up 150%), Mobilia Holdings Bhd (up 141.3%), and Lim Seong Hai Capital Bhd (up 115.38%).