PETALING JAYA: Ecomate Holdings Bhd’s initial public offering (IPO) has been oversubscribed by 98.94 times, ahead of the ready-to-assemble furniture maker’s listing on the ACE Market.

       “Ecomate has received a total of 18,677 applications for 1,748,955,700 shares with a value of RM577,155,381 from the Malaysian public for the 17,500,000 shares, representing an oversubscription rate of 98.94 times,” it said in a statement yesterday.

       For the bumiputra portion, a total of 9,664 applications for 780,852,300 shares were received, translating to an oversubscription rate of 88.24 times.

       Meanwhile, for the remaining public portion, a total of 9,013 applications for 968,103,400 shares were received, representing an oversubscription rate of 109.64 times.“The 8.75 million shares available for application by the eligible directors and employees as well as persons who have contributed to the success of the group have been completely subscribed.

       “In addition, the private placement of 22.75 million shares and 30 million offer shares made available by way of private placement to selected investors have also been fully placed out,” Ecomate said.

       Ecomate is slated to be listed on Nov 8.

       Upon listing, the group will have a market capitalisation of RM115.5mil based on the issue price of 33 sen.

       The listing entails a public issue of 49 million new ordinary shares at an issue price of 33 sen per share, representing 14% of Ecomate’s enlarged share capital, raising approximately RM16.17mil.

       The listing also includes an offer for sale of up to 30 million existing shares by way of private placement to selected investors.

       With the IPO proceeds, Ecomate managing director Jason Koh Jian Hui said the group will have sufficient war chest to accelerate its expansion plans.

       “Indeed, this is an opportune time for us to enhance our footing in the international market and capitalise on the rising demand for ready-to-assemble furniture.”

       “To ride on the growth trajectory of the furniture industry, we will be elevating our production capacity by adding a new production line in factory A as well as constructing the third factory, factory C which will house up to three additional production lines and one block of four-storey detached hostel,” he said.

       Moving forward, Koh is positive on the outlook of the furniture industry.

       He highlighted that the geopolitical trade tension has resulted in customer orders being re-routed to South-East Asian countries including Malaysia.

       In addition, the Covid-19 pandemic has hastened the adoption of online shopping for furniture purchase.

       Ecomate has benefited from these two macrotrends with its export to North America rising strongly, while sales to furniture e-commerce sellers growing fast, according to Koh.“Our operations are back on full scale since September 2021 following complete inoculation of our workers.

       “Hence, we are now working extra hard to catch up on lost time during the full movement control order in order to quickly fulfil the order backlogs.

       “At the same time, new orders are also flowing in, keeping us really busy,” he added.