Jun 12, 2012

Malaysia - Felda Moving Ahead With $3.2 Billion I.P.O. in Malaysia

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HONG KONG — Facebook’s botched Nasdaq debut last month may have cast a pall over the global market for new listings, but the Malaysian palm oil producer Felda Global Venture Holdings still plans to raise up to $3.2 billion this week in the world’s second-biggest initial public offering this year, according to a person with direct knowledge of the deal.

The decision comes despite a series of new listings being pulled or postponed in recent weeks, including prominent deals like Formula One’s planned $3 billion Singapore I.P.O. and an aborted $1 billion offering in Hong Kong by the British jeweler Graff Diamonds.

Felda, a state-owned producer of crude palm oil that earns the vast majority of its revenue within Malaysia, appears to be filling order books as the deal moves toward final pricing on Wednesday and a trading debut on the Kuala Lumpur exchange on June 28.

“This one is going to go through, no question about it,” a person with direct knowledge of the matter said on Monday. “The combination of the sector and the country is going to get us there.” The person declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Total funds raised by I.P.O.’s in Asia, excluding Japan, have declined 68 percent, to $13.9 billion, this year from the period a year earlier, the weakest year-to-date performance since 2009, according to data from Dealogic.

But Malaysia looks to be a recent bright spot among mostly gloomy global markets. Shares in Gas Malaysia rose as much as 15 percent at one point on Monday in its trading debut in Kuala Lumpur, following an I.P.O. that raised 734 million Malaysian ringgit ($232 million).

The hospital chain operator IHH Healthcare, owned by the Malaysian state investor Khazanah Nasional and the Japanese trading firm Mitsui, may raise more than $2 billion in a dual listing in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur next month, various media reports have said.

Felda’s prospects are buoyed by the structure of its deal. The company is selling 2.19 billion shares at an estimated price of 4 ringgit to 4.65 ringgit apiece. The shares being offered represent a maximum 63 percent stake in the firm, and half of them are existing shares held by the state.

The firm has locked in cornerstone investors, including the Qatar investment authority; AIA; Fidelity; Value Partners, a Hong Kong-based funds management firm; and several Malaysian state-affiliated pension funds, which together will own nearly a 20 percent stake after the I.P.O., the person with knowledge of the deal said.

A stake of about 11 percent will go to state governments in Malaysia, while about 13 percent will be offered to foreign and domestic institutional investors. The remaining 19 percent stake is being offered to domestic investors, employees and affiliates of the company, the person said.

CIMB, Maybank and Morgan Stanley are the joint bookrunners for the Felda I.P.O., while the same three plus Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase are the underwriters for the retail offering.

NEIL GOUGH


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