KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 18): Cape EMS Bhd, en route to list on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia in the first quarter of 2023, has signed an underwriting agreement with Hong Leong Investment Bank Bhd (HLIB) and AmInvestment Bank Bhd for its initial public offering (IPO).

Cape EMS, formerly known as Cape EMS Manufacturing (M) Bhd, is involved in electronics manufacturing services (EMS), aluminium die cast manufacturing and supply of electronic products. The group said it serves customers from both industrial and consumer sectors mainly from the US, Europe and Asia Pacific markets.

In a statement on Wednesday (Jan 18), Cape EMS said the IPO exercise entails a public issue of 173 million new shares and an offer for sale of 86.7 million existing shares. The enlarged issued share capital will be 923 million shares upon listing.

HLIB and AmInvestment Bank will underwrite a total of 54.2 million shares made available under the retail offering tranche.

Of the 54.2 million shares under the retail offering (which represents 5.8% of the enlarged issued share capital upon listing), 46.2 million shares will be available for application by the Malaysian public, half of which is reserved for  Bumiputeras.

Another eight million shares will be made available for application by eligible directors, employees, customers and suppliers who have contributed to the success of the group.

Of the 205.5 million shares for institutional offering (which represents 22.3% of the enlarged issued share capital upon listing), 115.5 million shares will be made available for Bumiputera investors approved by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. Another 90 million shares will be allocated to other institutional and selected investors.

Cape EMS’s managing director and group chief executive officer Christina Tee Kim Chin said the signing of the underwriting agreement marked a significant milestone as the group has come a long way with the expansion of its EMS capabilities to cover a wide range of products including wireless communications equipment and point of sale terminal.

“Our revenue from these EMS services recorded a compounded annual growth rate of 182.5% from 2019 till 2021. Our strength in providing end-to-end EMS solutions and dedicated manufacturing areas for our customers enable us to cater to our customers’ demands and create high stickiness for our services,” Tee said in the statement.

“We will subsequently utilise the IPO proceeds to expedite our growth and pursue our business plans through the construction of a new warehouse and installation of automated storage facilities, setting up a new cleanroom facility and purchase of automated production lines for EMS operations, just to name a few,” she added.

HLIB is the principal adviser, joint bookrunner and joint underwriter while AmInvestment Bank is the joint bookrunner and joint underwriter in connection with the IPO.

Cape EMS had obtained approval from the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) to list on Bursa Malaysia on Nov 23 last year.

Read more:
https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/cape-ems-seeks-main-market-listing