KUALA LUMPUR: The total issuances of corporate bonds and sukuk in Malaysia increased by 9.28 per cent to RM114.28 billion in 2021 from RM104.58 billion issued in 2020, the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) said.

       In its Annual Report 2021 released today, the SC said it has received 72 lodgements under the Lodge and Launch Framework and approved four applications for issuances of corporate bonds and sukuk as compared with 64 lodgements previously.

       It said ringgit-denominated corporate bonds and sukuk issues continued to form the majority of the proposals approved by/lodged with the SC with a total nominal value of RM162.83 billion, of which, 88.58 per cent or RM144.23 billion were sukuk.

       "The total number of ringgit-denominated corporate bonds and sukuk approved by/lodged with the SC with tenures of one to seven years and more than 15 years increased by 110 per cent and 9.76 per cent respectively.

       "There was a decrease of 11.11 per cent in the total number of ringgit-denominated corporate bonds and sukuk with tenures ranging from eight to 15 years,” it said.

       The SC said a total of 63 ratings were assigned by credit rating agencies to ringgit-denominated corporate bonds and sukuk issues lodged with the regulator last year.

       On take over and mergers, the SC said it has considered 79 applications in 2021 under the Rules on Take-overs, Mergers and Compulsory Acquisitions regulation compared with 80 applications in 2020.

       "A total of 18 offer documents were cleared in 2021, involving a total offer value of RM8.59 billion or an average of RM477.17 million per offer, which represented an increase of RM5.1 billion against the previous year,” it said.

       In 2020, the SC cleared a total of 25 offers documents with a total offer value of RM3.49 billion or an average of RM139.57 million per offer.

       The SC said in 2021 the scheme in relation to MMC Corporation Bhd was the largest offer at RM2.94 billion in offer value, representing 34 per cent of the total offer value for the year.

       Other notable offers in terms of offer values included FGV Holdings Bhd and IJM Plantations Bhd, both of which were listed in the plantations sector of Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd with offer values of RM2.35 billion and RM1.2 billion respectively.

       Meanwhile, the SC said there were 23 equity applications for consideration in 2021, of which, 13 were considered, three were withdrawn while the remaining seven would be considered in 2022.

       It said of the 13 equity applications considered, eight were for the Initial Public Offering (IPOs) on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia with a total market capitalisation of RM9.14 billion.

       It added that the estimated amount of funds raised from these IPOs was RM3.51 billion. - Bernama